Deborah Franqui, PhD, AIA, NCARB

Deborah Franqui is Senior project Manager - Healthcare Market Leader at Leo A Daly and Coordinator of the University of Miami School of Architecture’s Healthcare Design Programs. She is a published author, a recognized speaker, and a devoted researcher dedicated to conducting Design and Post-Occupancy Evaluations and the development of Evidence-Based Design Guidelines and Concepts for state-of-the-art healthcare facilities and workplace environments. Having attained a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University, she put her education and intrinsic abilities to work for various architecture firms before founding Spaces Architects, a professional service corporation dedicated to the programming and design of workplace environments.

After fifteen successful years as Founder and Principal at Spaces, Deborah decided to return to academia and concentrate solely on Health Design. She acquired a Master of Science in Architecture + Health and a PHD in the Built Environment + Health at Clemson University. She collaborated with Clemson as a Research Assistant focusing on Post-Occupancy Evaluations and Case Study Research for clients which include The Military Health System, Cleveland Clinic, and The Spartanburg Regional Health System. Her dissertation work focused on Post Occupancy Evaluation and the Development of Design Guidelines for Ambulatory Care Clinics.

Deborah Franqui presently concentrates on providing client-specific tailored programming, evidence-based highly functional space planning, and attentive human-centered design solutions that drive performance and innovation by creating, developing, and integrating emergent best practices that deliver increased operational and space efficiency, clinical effectiveness, and positive experiences in healthcare environments while continuing her role as an educator, researcher, speaker, and writer.