Event Description
As designers and policy makers respond to growing global challenges, ranging from climate to public health crises and social inequities, the responsibility of shaping place must extend beyond sustainability metrics to include human experience, emotional safety, and wellbeing. With most adults having experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, the built environment plays a critical role in supporting recovery and resilience, and also in preventing further traumatization. Everyday spaces can either amplify chronic stress or actively protect against. Trauma-Informed Design (TiD) recognizes the built environment as an intervention that reduces stress exposure and supports nervous system regulation.
This session introduces TiD as an applied, research-driven framework that translates principles from trauma-informed care, clinical settings, and social sciences into architectural practice. Drawing from interdisciplinary research and the work of the Trauma-Informed Design Society, the presentation demonstrates how empathy, safety, trust, choice, and cultural responsiveness can be intentionally embedded into the design process.
Through examples including housing, shelters, healthcare-adjacent environments, and community-focused projects, the session illustrates how design decisions related to spatial organization, daylight, acoustics, materiality, and access to nature directly influence stress regulation, cognitive function, and user experience. Participants will explore how TiD principles operate across three interconnected spheres: policy and practice, design process, and the built environment, emphasizing that TiD is not a checklist, but a population-based and iterative practice.
The presentation further addresses how designers can communicate impact, bridging qualitative user experience with evidence-based outcomes to support advocacy, leadership, and long-term performance. By aligning TiD strategies with nature-based solutions and culturally grounded design, the session reframes sustainability and wellbeing as inseparable responsibilities of design practice.
Ultimately, this session positions designers as empathetic leaders capable of translating global research into locally meaningful spaces that support healing and resilience while working in harmony with natural and social systems.
Speakers
Christine Cowart, MA, TiD-P, Co-Founder and COO, Trauma-informed Design Society
Janet E. Roche, MDS TiD-P CAPS, Co-Founder and CEO, Trauma-informed Design Society
Alina Osnaga, Assoc. AIA, NOMA, TiD-S,
Speaker Bios
Christine Cowart has built a career in human services, with a focus on legal systems, family services, and trauma intervention. Her career includes working as a legislative analyst in two states and a contract specialist for the Vermont Department for Children and Families, where she also co-chaired a racial equity workgroup. Christine is currently implementing Statewide trauma-informed practices as the policy director for the Vermont Department of Corrections. She founded Cowart Trauma-informed Partnership to help organizations implement trauma-informed care practices and merges trauma-informed care with design as the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of the Trauma-informed Design Society.
Janet Roche is a global design leader specializing in trauma-informed, inclusive, and human-centered design. She is the co-founder and CEO of the Trauma-Informed Design Society and Janet Roche Designs, LLC, focusing on environments that promote healing, safety, and dignity for all individuals, especially those affected by trauma, neurodiversity, aging, and cognitive disabilities. Janet co-authored Trauma-Informed Design: A Framework for Architects, Designers, and Other Practitioners (2024) and created the Trauma-Informed Design Certification program. She also developed the Trauma-Informed Design Evaluation Tool for K-12 Schools (TiDEvalK12), which received the EDRA CORE Award for research excellence.
Janet holds a Master of Design in Human Health from the Boston Architectural College and a B.S. in Social Work from Boston University.
Alina Osnaga is an architectural designer and researcher working at the intersection of architecture and the empirical sciences. With a transdisciplinary background in physics, neuroscience applied to architecture, and architecture, her work advances trauma-informed and culturally responsive design to improve human well-being. An award-winning researcher and King Medal recipient, her work has been presented internationally at EDRA, Planetree, European Healthcare Design, IEEE, and ENAH, and featured in Bloomberg CityLab and professional media. Alina serves on the AIA Detroit Board and National Council of Ethics, and collaborates with the Trauma-Informed Design Society to promote equitable, evidence-based design globally.
