OMAHA, NE — Cyndi McCullough, MSN, EDAC, Director of Evidence-Based Design at HDR, has been named as the 2020 Changemaker Award recipient by The Center for Health Design’s board of directors. Celebrated annually at Healthcare Design Expo & Conference, the award honors individuals or organizations that have demonstrated the exceptional ability to change the way healthcare facilities are designed and built, and whose work has had broad impact on the advancement of healthcare design.

In the past three decades, McCullough’s journey has gone from Nurse Manager of a transplant and urology/nephrology unit to a Senior Healthcare Consultant for a global healthcare design firm.

Holding evidence-based design and Lean healthcare certifications, McCullough works to maximize value, eliminate waste, and provide a path for continuous improvement while enhancing safety and quality of care. As a Clinician and Planner, she helps clients understand the impact of strategic, operational, and technology planning to help determine space needs in health care facilities. Working closely with designers throughout programming, schematics, and design development, she helps to create efficient and effective environments.

McCullough was an active and early proponent for evidence-based design in the Healthcare Research & Development Institute, which includes top CEOs from the nation’s leading health care organizations. Having authored numerous articles, two books, and contributing content to seven others, she embraces every opportunity to write and speak to spread the word about evidence-based design and regularly presents her knowledge at universities, conferences, podcasts, and webinars.

“It is, perhaps, because she is a caregiver herself that clients trust and respect her so immensely," said Frank Weinberg, MS, Board Chair, The Center for Health Design. “She speaks their language and understands their challenges, because she has faced them herself. Her influence during the past 30 years is staggering, with 200-plus projects for 164 different health care providers in 37 states and 14 countries. We thank Cyndi for her expertise, experience, and tireless devotion.”

McCullough will officially accept the Changemaker Award and be the keynote speaker on November 9 at the Healthcare Design Expo & Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.