Dr. Hessam Ghamari is an Associate Professor of Interior Design for the Department of Family & Consumer Sciences at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Dr. Ghamari has more than 15+ years working as an architect and an interior designer in Iran and the United States. He has experience working on healthcare, hospitality, commercial, and residential projects. Prior to his appointment at CSUN, Dr. Ghamari taught at Appalachian State University for four years. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Interior Design in 2014 from Texas Tech University. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences on environmental psychology, evidence-based design, and healthcare design. The decision-making process in the interior design discipline should take the physiological and psychological needs of the people. Dr. Ghamari’ s design philosophy revolves around providing healthy and humanistic environments that can positively impact its users–to improve the quality of life of people in different settings. This attests to his interests in interdisciplinary approaches to improve health and well-being outcomes in healthcare environments. His design philosophy revolves around providing healthy and humanistic environments that can positively impact the users of those environments. From his perspective, design can significantly improve the health and well-being of the user of the environment.

Dr. Nasrin Golshany is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art, Design, and Art History at California State University, Fresno, with a primary focus on researching the intricate connection between the built environment and its influence on health outcomes. Her academic pursuits encompass various aspects of healthcare design, environmental psychology, and evidence-based methodologies, with a special emphasis on Human-Centric Lighting Design and age-friendly space creation. She previously served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oregon, where she earned her Ph.D. in Architecture in 2023 and gained four years of teaching experience. In addition to her academic contributions, Dr. Golshany’s work has a dual impact, enhancing therapeutic environments for health and well-being while providing future designers with essential decision-making tools. Her deep curiosity drives her to collaborate with a diverse community of researchers and practitioners, addressing health, comfort, and sustainability challenges in the human ecosystem, and ultimately promoting individual, communal, and planetary well-being. Currently, her research employs simulation and virtual reality to craft immersive lighting environments, exploring their profound effects on the elderly population in assisted living facilities.