Becca Blodgett, NCIDQ, EDAC, a Healthcare Planner at Gensler, and an alumni and faculty member of the New York School of Interior Design’s Master of Professional Studies in Design of Healthcare Environments (MPSH), just saw a milestone project built and opened. She was on the Gensler team that created the plan and programming for the Emergency Department of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, which serves 100,000 patients a year. Some of Blodgett’s efforts focused on the ballroom design of the ER. She says, “With a ballroom design, we wrap the patient rooms around the perimeter of the available space, with the care team in the middle, so they have great visibility over all the patients, and a clear understanding of everything that’s happening, including security risks.”
Becca Blodgett. Photo courtesy of New York School of Interior Design.
Blodgett loves her job, both its challenge and its meaning. “I definitely would not be where I am today without my education in healthcare design at NYSID,” she says. “At NYSID, I realized there’s so much you can do with healthcare design. The course in Programming for Healthcare Environments changed my career path.” Five years after her graduation in 2022, she is now teaching that course, exposing her students to programming for every type of space under the clinical umbrella.
Get the Knowledge & Connections to Elevate Your Career
The one-of-a-kind one-year Master of Professional Studies in Design of Healthcare Environments (MPSH) at the New York School of Interior Design helps professionals working in healthcare design position themselves for advancement. Tama Duffy Day, who previously headed the healthcare and senior living practices at global architectural and design firms Gensler and Perkins&Will, now directs NYSID’s MPSH. “This program immerses students in design projects specifically focused on health and healthcare, challenges them to conduct and synthesize research, exposes them to the latest in evidence-based practice and the business of healthcare, and connects them to leading practitioners,” says Duffy Day. “It’s a great way to reposition your career, supercharge your thought-process and hone your technical skills.” Among the faculty of professionals, with diverse expertise, who will be teaching in the MPSH this year are Latoya Nelson Kamdang, Associate Principal, Ennead Architects; Dawne David-Pierre, Associate Principal, Perkins&Will; and Elizabeth Sullivan, Regional Co-Leader of Healthcare (Northeast), HOK.
Patient room at City of Hope Orange County Cancer Specialty Hospital in Irvine, California, designed by NYSID alumna Cassandra Ramirez. Photo courtesy of HOK.
Many Pathways in Healthcare Design
Alumni of NYSID’s MPSH have forged many different paths in the sector. Cassandra Ramirez, EDAC, NCIDQ, a graduate of both NYSID’s BFA in Interior Design and Master of Professional Studies in Design of Healthcare Environments (MPSH), works as a Senior Healthcare Interior Designer at HOK in Seattle, WA. After her graduation in 2013, she got her first job in healthcare at Gensler through NYSID connections, including Tama Duffy Day, who was an advisor to the program at the time and recommended her. Says Ramirez, “This specialized degree in healthcare design absolutely helped in my career journey.”
Cassandra Ramirez. Photo courtesy of New York School of Interior Design.
Ramirez is particularly proud of her work for the City of Hope Orange County Cancer Specialty Hospital in Irvine, California. Beginning during the pandemic, she worked remotely to design an eight-story private cancer treatment center. Her work focused on the design of 73 ICU and medical-surgical patient rooms, operating and procedure rooms, and the Specialized Evaluation & Treatment Center (ETC), which alleviates the need for patients to go to an ER. The renderings her team produced helped the non-profit cancer center secure funding it needed to be built. (The project is in its final phase).
“NYSID’s MPSH program helped me understand the interdependence of every space in a healthcare facility,” says Ramirez, reflecting on her education. “My instructors took us on tours of healthcare systems. They had us enter through the staff spaces, go through the back of the house corridors, observe the public and patient-facing spaces. This, combined with the emphasis on materials research, stuck with me, and guides me to this day.”
Some alumni of NYSID’s MPSH alumni take less conventional paths. Alice Mastrangelo Gittler, a design researcher, and PhD candidate in Systems Science at Binghamton University, graduated with the inaugural cohort of NYSID’s MPSH, in 2013, and forged a groundbreaking career in design research within the healthcare sector. Her first job out of the NYSID program was as a healthcare design researcher at BBH Design. She went on to build the healthcare design research practice at EwingCole, and acted as director of research, collaborating with design and clinical teams to optimize operations and experience. She is currently conducting her doctoral research, which explores how interprofessional teams, from the healthcare providers to the architects to interior designers to administrators, come together to make decisions during the design of healthcare facilities. She also teaches in the MPSH and MFA1 programs at NYSID. She says, “The NYSID MPSH program teaches the complexity and breadth of knowledge within the healthcare design sector. It helped me understand where I was going, and the pathway to get there. It required a combination of left and right brain thinking.”
Alice Mastrangelo Gittler. Photo courtesy of New York School of Interior Design.
It’s not surprising that the course that had the most impact on Mastrangelo Gittler was Theory & Research for Healthcare Design, which she now teaches as a NYSID MPSH faculty member. She says of the research course, “The objective is to spark a researcher mindset and offer practical tools which students can apply in their academics and future practice.”
What’s Next?
If you’re looking to deepen or update your knowledge of healthcare design, consider making an application to NYSID’s MPSH. The program is offered in a flexible combination of online and in person and is open to those with a degree in interior design, architecture or a related field. The MPSH is a STEM program offering the possibility of three years of OPT post-graduation.
