But First, Regulation
We can misread dysregulation as bad behavior . But there may be another layer we don’t always consider: not just what’s happening inside the child — but what the child is inside of.
Does Trauma-Informed Design Help Kids Feel Safe?
The research on trauma-informed school design is compelling. Walking it on a Tuesday morning in August is something else.
What a Kid’s Party Teaches Us About Outdoor Design
A porch, a parade around the block, and a reminder that the best gathering spaces don't require a design budget.
Loneliness is a Public Health Emergency. Design Can Help.
The WHO's 2025 report names social connection as a global health imperative. For those of us who design places, it is also a professional mandate.
How to Design for Inclusion
The built environment can exclude — or embrace. Sometimes, it takes heartbreak to spark change.
Beyond Beauty: Architecture That Heals
We often think of architecture in terms of beauty, function, or innovation—but what if architecture could help you heal?
How Our Brains React to the Spaces Around Us
Have you ever walked into a building and just felt something—like a sense of calm, inspiration, or even excitement—without really knowing why?
Can the Built Environment be Designed for Social Connection?
What do we mean when we talk about designing for connection? How does architecture, interior design, and urban planning impact our social health?
Why Solitude Supports Social Connection
I love people. But even so, extensive time surrounded by even the most wonderful humans can overwhelm my system. Part of my ability to dedicate myself to human connection, relies on time connecting alone with myself.
Design with Pity vs Compassion
Why pity and sympathy can feel bad, and empathy can overwhelm our systems without balance.
Design Your Life
Mental health month exercises designed to help you reflect on your current life, explore various life paths, and prototype experiences to build a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling.
Design That Celebrates Neurodiversity
Early in life, I didn’t have the words highly sensitive person, or sensory processing sensitivities, I just knew the world often felt too loud and overwhelming. If you’re struggling to find a place where you can be yourself, you’re not alone.
What Helps Create a Connected Community?
In architecture, we must recognize that because we are creating spaces for people outside of the norm, we need to embody those people in the profession. We need all of the variety to bring in those perspectives and that value.
Women’s History Month
Growing up, I didn’t think I liked history — until I saw the broader view we’re not teaching in most schools.
Places that Foster Social and Climate Resilience
Place can offer tangible proof of human wisdom, determination and courage. Architecture and design can be a reminder of our interconnectedness with nature and with each other.
Mentorship Matters
Mentorship is not the exchange of services, but the building of a meaningful relationship between mentee and mentor. In that spirit, I wanted to share a few of my takeaways from amazing mentors and mentees in my life.
Focus on the Good
Above my desk I have a quote that says, "when you focus on the good, the good gets better." This messages seems feels deeply rooted in this season of life.
Takeaways from Harvard’s Forum on Social Connection
More than half of American adults say that having close friends is essential to living a fulfilling life. And yet Americans (and many others) appear to be declining in social connection across.
How do we turn this craving into a way to cultivate connection?
A Life of Purpose
Sitting in the kitchen as a high school senior, I was tearing up again. Wet cheeks in my hand, I poured out my heart.
The Upside of Our Craving for Connection
I recently had the honor of sitting down with the amazing NBC Texas Today host, Kristen Dickerson, to share ways to connect and how design can help heal loneliness.
Perched on white stool beside her, I was struck by something she said that is still rattling in my head today – that loneliness is such a sad word. And perhaps it is. I get it. No one wants to be lonely, and yet roughly 3 in 5 Americans are. Loneliness often feels like a personal fault, “what, no one wants to hang out with you?!” but that couldn’t be further from the truth, it is the trick that loneliness plays on our minds, and the way it grows in the darkness.