2024 Tradewell Fellows Embrace Opportunities for Healthcare Design and Research

Page named Ruben Zarate Jr. and Kimia Erfani as its 2024 Tradewell Fellows. Celebrating its 27th year, the Tradewell Fellowship program positions tomorrow’s healthcare planners and designers for rapid career advancement and leadership through immersive participation in healthcare design projects and the opportunity to explore a healthcare design research question in their area of interest.

Based in the company’s Dallas, Texas office, Ruben Zarate Jr. received a Master of Architecture degree from Texas A&M and a certificate in health systems and design. He is interested in how healthcare environments can heal occupants through Evidence-Based Design, and his Tradewell research project focuses on design in the outpatient environment.
Fellow Kimia Erfani, EDAC, who works in the company’s Los Angeles, California office, has a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master’s in human-environment relations from Cornell, and recently completed a Doctorate in Architecture from the University of Michigan.

She is interested in the interplay between social technology and the built environment to enhance older adults’ social well-being and quality of life. Her Tradewell research project focuses on adopting the principles of trauma-informed design to enhance the mental health care of children/adolescents in spaces that can assist in early detection and treatment.