Social and Emotional Learning Visual Design Guide Recognized as Finalist for 2024 A4LE Kelley Tanner Innovation Award

Known for its incredibly rich insight and beautifully crafted tool, the Social and Emotional Learning Visual Design Guide is proving to be a transformative resource for everyone in the education community. Recognized as a finalist for the 2024 A4LE Kelley Tanner Innovation Award, we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the meaningful impact that this tool will bring forth. The Social and Emotional Visual Design Guide is an innovation beacon for teachers, students, school administrators, and designers to support whole student and teacher health.  

The VDG (Visual Design Guide) translates complex scientific findings into 18 practical design strategy cards geared towards bringing awareness to how the school environment can elevate the learning and teaching experience and promote positive outcomes for social and emotional well-being for both teachers and students. In addition to the evidence-based strategy cards, the VDG provides a deep dive into the evidence that supports the strategies, illustrations on teacher-student interactions to promote collaboration, connection and meaningful impact, and clear instruction on how to optimize the utility of the guide. The VDG can be utilized electronically or printed out as a physical copy.  

At its very core, the 2024 A4LE Kelley Tanner Innovation Award advocates for community, equity, integrity, and an actionable vision of what’s possible, deeply rooted in research. The VDG is unique in that it shines a light on the student and teacher outcomes that are associated with various interior design strategies in a K-12 setting, this has never been done before and the evidence to support these strategies is often behind a paywall and therefore inaccessible. Accessibility and understanding were at the forefront when creating this tool.  

Collaborative thinking amongst community, industry, academia, and design practice was also an instrumental contribution to the development of the VDG. Ever heard of the saying, “you can’t pour from an empty cup?” Teachers play a crucial role in learning spaces, it is pertinent that their perspectives are taken into consideration when it comes to making an impact within the education community. The VDG amplifies the voices of teachers by incorporating direct teacher insights within the evidence-based design strategy cards labeled as “From the Teacher’s Desk”. An undergraduate interior design studio course that focused on K-12 design was an additional community partner in advancing this endeavor. Students had the opportunity to utilize the VDG to learn how to connect theory to design. The result was that students were empowered to steer the local school district towards evaluating, re-conceptualizing and sharing new design guidelines with the design community. One of the students involved in the effort stated, “[The VDG] made me consider every detail that is necessary in making not just a classroom, but across an entire school system safer and more conducive to learning.” 

These design strategy cards provide a real opportunity for teachers to alter their work environment, for administrators to advocate for and promote positive outcomes for students and teachers, and for designers to enhance their ability to bring forth meaningful impact within the education community. 

As one of the leaders of this effort, Dr. Renae Mantooth is adamant about ensuring accessibility to this guide for those who are interested. If you or anyone you know of is interested in harnessing the power of this free VDG, please feel free to share. 

CAUSE – 2 Cities, 2 Conferences, 1 Day

What happens when you have two influential events in different cities, but on the same day? You remember why you built a team: many hands make light work! The Coalition for the Advanced Understanding of School Environments (CAUSE) did just that a couple of weeks ago when they were scheduled to present at the A4LE’s annual LearningSCAPES conference in Portland, Oregon and at the Council for Great City Schools conference in Dallas, Texas on the same day. Here are some reflections and lessons learned from both events:

Q&A with Dr. Michael C. Ralph, Vice President and the Director of Research with Multistudio

Q: CAUSE has presented at other conferences - what was unique about your experience at LearningSCAPES?

• A: I am grateful first and foremost for the overall enthusiasm and support from the field. We had a terrific turnout and lots of interest from folks wanting to be involved. This is a coalition and I am proud we are developing an effort people want to be a part of. There was lots of discussion about the boundaries of what types of research we want to see standardized versus what should be unique decisions left to researchers/firms. For example, participants considered how CAUSE might support making connections between measured outcomes and the stories of students and educators.

Q: Why is the work of CAUSE important and what was the response from the LearningSCAPES attendees? 

• A: I continue to be struck by the shared interest in these kinds of tools and resources. CAUSE is developing these research tools as fast as we can, and I am hearing from participants over and over again that they want the tools and references as soon as we can share them. As our early work has already shown, the lack of publicly available tools has been a barrier to even open discussion of post-occupancy evaluations… and I hope CAUSE is poised to further dismantle that barrier.

Q: Getting this energy from LearningSCAPES, what are you looking forward to and how will that impact CAUSE’s next steps? 

• A: As we move forward into 2025, I am excited to see how the growing momentum translates to opportunities for further refinement of the CAUSE tools. I hope that as CAUSE begins planning for Cohort 2 with more school districts across the United States – with the learnings from our development with Cohort 1 in Austin Independent School District – we can continue to maintain the rigor and quality that has been the centerpiece of our work thus far.

Q&A with Dr. Raechel French, Director of Planning for Austin ISD

Q: The Council for Great City Schools centers on the innovation and transformation of education. How does a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) tool fit into this?  

• A: The Council for Great City Schools (CGCS) is a conference all about problem solving and sharing. Both of these tenants are central to our efforts in creating an open-source, open-science post-occupancy evaluation. School districts want to leverage any tool they can to support better outcomes for students and a better learning and teaching experience. If we can bring data to the table at this event, especially at scale, we could have incredible impact on how we approach school design as one of these levers.

Q: What was the response of the CGCS attendees and how does this influence the coalition work?

• A: The response to our efforts was positive. Participants were engaged in hearing about existing research and approaches to learning space design and multiple school districts expressed interested in joining our CAUSE. I can only imagine more will join in as they see the results of our pilot study. I look forward to presenting our ongoing work at future conferences and building a network of like minded school districts.

CADRE Wins EHD 2024 Design Research Project AWard

European Health Design (EHD) announced that the coalition of CADRE, HKS, Inc., and MillerKnoll has won the EHD 2024 Design Research Project award for Blueprint for mitigating nurse burnout: A social listening perspective. 

Organized by Architects for Health and SALUS, the awards were officially announced at the Royal College of Physicians in London at the 10th annual European Healthcare Design Congress, Exhibition & Awards.  

CADRE is proud to have facilitated the coalition between CADRE, HKS, Inc., and MillerKnoll, which was formed in 2022. Led by Dr. Deborah Wingler and Dr. Michelle Ossman, the study analyzed over 15,000 online responses to better understand the pressure points and issues that contribute to the crisis of nurse burnout. Dr. Rutali Joshi also served as co-Principal Investigator and Researcher, and Ed Hunt, a doctoral student at The University of Texas at Austin, served as Research Fellow.

After receiving the award in London, EHD noted that Dr. Deborah Wingler has “defended her crown,” having received the same award last year on a project that studied the pandemic resiliency of the US military health system. Dr. Deborah Wingler has been appointed as Executive Director of CADRE. She has led or advised numerous projects at the non-profit.  

Dr. Deborah Wingler is stepping up as Executive Director. Listen to her discussion with Dr. Upali Nanda, in our inaugural CADRE Conversation.

Welcome to our first CADRE Conversation, where we delve into our organization’s exciting leadership transition where Dr. Deborah Wingler will be taking the reins as Executive Director. In conversation with Dr. Upali Nanda, who served as Executive Director for the past decade, Dr. Deborah Wingler discusses CADRE’s transformative journey, bridging academia, industry, and practice to redefine the design industry. Listen in to this conversation about CADRE’s legacy and Dr. Wingler’s vision for the future.

Listen to the audio above or follow along to an edited transcript of the conversation between Dr. Deborah Wingler and Dr. Upali Nanda.

Dr. Upali Nanda

Hi, everyone. My name is Upali Nanda. I am the Global Sector Director for Innovation at HKS, and I've had the proud privilege of being Executive Director of CADRE since 2013—up until last year. I'm so excited to have this conversation with our new Executive Director—but not at all new to CADRE—Dr. Deborah Wingler. Deborah, please tell us a little about yourself and what you're excited about coming into this role.

 Dr. Deborah Wingler

Thank you, Upali. It’s wonderful to be here. I am the Global Practice Director for Applied Research at HKS. I've had quite a long background in healthcare innovation for over two decades, starting with patient and family advocacy,  and thinking about how to design spaces and elevate the human spirit so that true healing can take place. That all kind of catapulted me into a a whole new direction in life where I've had the opportunity to be at the forefront of some of the most meaningful changes in terms of thinking about how we could reimagine healthcare. I started my research in the nonprofit world, thinking about how we might change the safety net for this country, so transitioning into this work has been amazing. We’ve worked with forward-thinking manufacturers and industry partners to help them reimagine their product lines—and even how they think about well-being and what their products mean. With the opportunity to work at HKS, I've had the privilege to bring health and well-being at multiple scales into different projects, across the globe.

Dr. Upali Nanda

That's amazing.

Dr. Deborah Wingler

I think one of the things that I'm most excited about stepping into the Executive Directorship at CADRE is the opportunity to make a meaningful impact. I think CADRE is incredibly unique in the way it's positioned. We’re able to convene the brightest minds and some of the greatest individuals who are thinking very deeply and meaningfully about very big topics. And that for me gets exciting because I think we have an opportunity to create a bridge between academia and practice and industry—where all voices can be heard and can contribute to solving meaningful problems from around the world every day. I think CADRE is uniquely positioned to speak to that, moving important conversations forward across our industry about how design can impact the world around us in many, many different ways.

Dr. Upali Nanda

Awesome. And what are you most looking forward to, Deborah?

Dr. Deborah Wingler

I'm most looking forward to continuing the amazing legacy of CADRE, while being able to grow and work alongside thoughtful individuals. Our projects span Nurse Burnout, which is a global project, all the way to brain health, which impacts us all. There are just so many broad and different projects that CADRE has already done. What I'm most excited about is leveraging the platform to bring multiple voices together, while engaging those individuals who are out there already doing the amazing work.

Dr. Upali Nanda

So well said, Deborah. Tom Harvey started this all in 2006 with Dr. Debajyoti Pati, and we look back at this now after more than a decade has passed and see the amount of work that has happened and the number of institutions and companies and academic institutions we have worked alongside. The number of students that we've had a chance to support through the coalition model, the kind of topics we've been able to take from healthcare through education to housing, all with a very clear mission and vision to improve health and well-being for all. Through design, we are at an incredible inflection point with a very robust board with Ana Pinto-Alexander as the President and with you as the Executive Director. We’re opening a new chapter. In the legacy that Tom and Dr. Pati established, and I've had the privilege of taking forward. I'm so excited to hear your vision and excited about where we're going next. I would like to wish you the very, very best of luck. For where you take us and continued partnership from everything that we've done in the past, it is going to be a whole lot of fun in a very new, incredible way.

Dr. Deborah Wingler

Well said. I'm looking forward to being able to continue this work together. And I'd love to hear from your perspective. What are some of the things that you are most proud of over your tenure over the last 10 years? What are some things you feel have been amazing to be a part of?

Dr. Upali Nanda

I could talk about the projects, but I'm proudest of the people we've touched. We've been very, very lucky. You’re no stranger to CADRE, Deborah, too. You and I have worked on many CADRE projects together. Everyone on the HKS Research team who has volunteered time. Through it, all of the students and CADRE scholars that we have had the opportunity to work with. We’ve pushed a lot of new thinking out into the world. From something like Clinic 20XX, which was based on Market Research, to the work with UC San Diego Torrey Pines, which was more about measuring outcomes of the built environment to what we're doing right now—the work you’re leading with Nurse Burnout, which is a completely novel methodology. So over time, the scale, the complexity, the thinking, and the methods have improved. But the proudest achievement is the kind of community that we have built both through the founding partners at HKS and our teams, but also the different organizations we've had a chance to work with. UTA, UC San Diego, and MillerKnoll. I think that is probably the thing that I'm the proudest of. When Tom had started this with Dr. Pati years ago, he envisioned a think tank that would be a trusted place for the entire design and allied communities. I think we're only unpacking the potential of it all, and we are so well poised to unpack that potential with the new leadership.

Dr. Deborah Wingler

It’s so exciting to think about what's ahead! I agree with you, I think the ability to support scholars through CADRE is one of the things that makes us unique and special in terms of building that bridge between academia and practice and giving everyone a place to grow and flourish. With each scholar we've had, we've had the ability for them to grow and we’ve watched their careers unfold—and we’ve watched how just one project helps each person move forward. That's so exciting to see when you can see a project’s impact on an individual's career trajectory.

Dr. Upali Nanda

Couldn't agree more. Deborah, is that part of what you're most excited about as well?

Dr. Deborah Wingler

It’s the bridge between academia and practice, right? We talk about it a lot. Over the years it's been difficult to navigate the right balance. But I think CADRE has done an excellent job of showing the power of uniting the two—from scholars to partners and thinking through these very large ideas. There's such a power that comes from this synergy. Having a place where these two worlds can convene—on neutral territory, so to speak—right where everyone gets to operate to their fullest potential. So that’s exactly it for me. Such an incredible opportunity that CADRE has to offer.

Dr. Upali Nanda

That is very well said. I honestly couldn't be more excited. Deborah. I couldn't be more excited about this era that you and Ana are going to take forward. I think the legacy with Tom Harvey then Dr. Pati and then me having a chance to work with the non-profit. With you coming on board, it feels like an evolution.

Dr. Deborah Wingler

I 100% agree. We have an amazing board with a variety of expertise that will help CADRE grow over the next few years. We have expertise in marketing and grants, in addition to academic researchers who have put forward great work. This will not only challenge but truly catapult CADRE forward. This will make a huge difference in what we're able to achieve. And I think also who were able to touch right, they each bring with them this vast network of individuals, all of which really can begin to contribute be part of CADRE. We’re grateful for our board and we’re grateful for their engagement and commitment to CADRE.

Dr. Upali Nanda

Well said. I share your excitement, and to your point, having Maggie Calkins, Sarah Marberry, Jenny Roe, Jason Schroer—you're getting an industry perspective, you're getting a communications perspective and an academic perspective and a non-profit perspective. This is such a well-rounded group of people guiding the organization. We’re at an inflection point of a really strong few years to follow, and I really want to thank you, Deborah, for taking this mantle on and leading us into this new chapter.

Dr. Deborah Wingler

Thank you, Upali. And I do recognize that I have very, very big shoes to fill, and I am so grateful for the legacy that Tom, Dr. Pati, and you have left—because without that we would not be here today.

Dr. Upali Nanda

And before me and before both of us. So, we will continue together to till the soil for even more amazing individuals to come. Thank you so, so much.

New Board President, Ana Pinto-Alexander, Looks Forward to CADRE's Year Ahead.

CADRE has recently transitioned to new leadership under Ana Pinto-Alexander, as the not-for-profit evolves in its mission to advance design research and evaluation. Ana’s leadership will guide CADRE’s coalition-based projects into 2024, as the organization continues to collaborate with brilliant researchers, student fellows, and industry thought leaders. The following Q&A with the new Board President, Ana Pinto-Alexander, highlights what to expect in the new year.

CADRE’s mission is to advance design research and evaluation, and to do so in a way that benefits communities. What specific initiatives can we look forward to this year?

CADRE’s mission is to advance design research and evaluation to build a world in which all people have pathways to health and well-being—and our research prioritizes people and place.   

We are excited to have the following coalitions on the books.

I’ll begin with Enriched Environments to Support Social and Emotional Learning. With funding provided by the AISD Foundation, a coalition team consisting of CADRE and Uplift School District. The team developed a Visual Design Guide that contains 18 evidence-based design strategies to be used by all stakeholders in the design process. The project is ongoing and will continue through 2025.

We also have two exciting projects to look forward to. Dr. Deborah Wingler is the Principal Investigator on Nurse Burnout: A Social Listening Perspective. The study uses social media to investigate the impact of the physical healthcare environment on nurse burnout from the perspective of the nurse’s experience.

I’m excited to say that the Coalition for the Advanced Understanding of Learning Environments (CAUSE) has been formed, including six global and national architecture firms, academic partners, and local school districts, to support the continuous improvement of educational facilities. 

How has CADRE’s work evolved in the face of new drivers in the design community? Is this particularly evident in any project on the docket next year?

Our work evolves as the industry itself changes. And right now, we’re responding to new expectations of our clients and colleagues in Education spaces. Leveraging research in practice is more than a competitive advantage, it’s an expectation in the K-12 design approach. But there’s still siloed work streams and varying degrees of academic rigor. We believe that all stakeholders in the design and use of learning spaces would benefit from a shared tool strategically designed for schools—allowing for a broader reach of academic research and meaningful data sharing across design teams and school systems. This is especially important now as multibillion-dollar investments are being made nationwide to upgrade and modernize our aging educational facilities. Through key coalition partners, we’re pursuing multi-year education research, working alongside Perkins & Will, HKS, Austin Independent School District, and MultiStudio.

How does the coalition model lead to innovation?

The coalition model is how we maximize impact in our communities.

Consider how we applied the coalition model at University of California, Davis. We teamed up with HKS and, of course, UC Davis, to study the influence of residence hall architecture on experience and overall environmental satisfaction. We investigated the differences between two residential units and public spaces on the UC Davis campus and how they predicted well-being, belonging, and loneliness. We needed all stakeholders in the study to get to our findings—which are now being used to inform future decision-making and develop best practices for residential hall design and operations.

The coalition model often produces a longer lifespan for research findings. In collaboration with Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, HKS, Mass Design, Salk, Ideas Institute, and Communities First (Sponsored by RRF), we produced prioritized design criteria and metrics for the built environment of affordable independent living communities to achieve resilient access to social connection. Although the project concluded a year ago, the findings are still being presented at conferences like the recent Leading Age Conference, presented by Dr. Margaret Calkins and Dr. Upali Nanda, in October 2023.

As a leader at CADRE, what are you most looking forward to in the coming year? And which partnerships and relationships are we looking to build?

We bring different organizations together to work on a solution that serves a greater purpose.

We also provide students with opportunities to work as fellows on projects. We select the “best of the best” student fellows to participate in research projects. This exposes them to real-life problems, working under some of the best researchers in the country. The changes in these students' lives are well documented in their feedback on how working on a CADRE project gave them additional insights into the practice and helped them accelerate their careers after graduation.

I look forward to working with the brilliant minds of the researchers and the student fellows.

I want to leverage my industry relationships to create opportunities to elevate their missions and bring a stable financial pipeline to support CADRE’s growth.