Barbara Huelat

Barbara Huelat is a nationally recognized designer of healthcare environments. She serves as a healing environment consultant to hospitals, clinics, senior living spaces, and other medical facilities. Her three decades of design experience cover virtually all types, components and sizes of domestic and international healthcare facilities, including signature projects with the Mayo Clinics, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute of Japan, and King Faisal Research and Specialist Hospital, among others. The author of three books, including "Taming the Chaos of Dementia," Huelat is passionate about using design to improve the healthcare experience for patients, families, and staff.

In addition to her work as a designer, Heulat is also a healthcare strategist, researcher, hospice volunteer, and dementia caregiver. She believes that human-centric design can mitigate human misery and create more healing environments. She is committed to using her voice to advocate for better care and to inspire others to use design to make a difference in the world.

Heulat was a founding board member for the Symposium on Healthcare Design and is a past president on the board of regents for the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers. She sits on the National Board of the American Society of Interior Designers. In 2023, the Center for Health Design presented Heulat with its Changemaker Award for her dedication and leadership as a prolific design practitioner of 40-plus years.