Stephanie Taylor, M.D., M. Arch

Engineers Are the Physicians of the Future

Dr. Taylor presents real-time data that presents strategies on improving the health of building occupants while reducing building energy consumption. We spend the majority of our time indoors, yet there is little information relating human physiology to indoor spaces. This presentation will reveal new data on occupant health and the indoor environment, and will turned preexisting views on indoor air management, design of inhabited spaces and surface cleaning upside down! Learn how indoor spaces can truly support human health and get ready to be totally amazed by the healing potential of the built environment

Dr. Stephanie Taylor received her MD from Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts in 1984. For the next several decades, she practiced clinical medicine and did academic research in cellular growth mechanisms.

During this time, she became increasingly concerned about patients who were harmed by new infection during their in-patient treatment. Determined to gain a better understanding of the impact of the built environment on patient well-being, she returned to school and obtained her Master's Degree I Architecture and Engineering from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. After working for several years in a healthcare design architecture firm, she founded Taylor Healthcare Consulting, Inc., in order to focus on designing, building and maintaining hospitals to better support patient healing. She quickly learned that many of the building and indoor air characteristics that affect people in hospitals also influenced the health of all people in buildings.

Dr. Taylor is currently working at the intersection of architectural design, indoor air management, the microbiome of the built environment and occupant health. She finds the impact of buildings on our health startling! Managing the built environment and indoor air with the goal of decreasing diseases from acute infections to chronic inflammation to cognitive impairment, is a very underutilized yet powerful approach to disease prevention. She finds that her physician insights and biological research helps her understand the science behind the interaction of buildings, human physiology and energy consumption.

Dr. Taylor has designed hospitals globally, from the United States to Papua New Guinea to Vietnam. In addition to her Taylor Healthcare Consulting work, she is a member of the Harvard Medical School Incite Health Fellowship. This program brings together multidisciplinary teams from across the US, trains them in design thinking and entrepreneurship, and gives them the tools and resources to guide the future of medical care.

To communicate her work and understanding about the fascinating convergence of human health, microbiology and architecture, Dr. Taylor writes monthly columns and bi-annual feature articles for Engineered Systems Magazine and publishes in other healthcare journals. She is an active member of ASHRAE, ASHE and national and international medical associations. When not working elsewhere, Dr. Taylor lives in beautiful Stowe, Vermont with her husband and eight dogs. One of her favorite activities is skydiving, which she finds is great practice for staying outside of her comfort zone!