Ph.D. student tapped to represent Jordan in global health care group

Shireen Kanakri, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M, will represent her native country, Jordan, as member of the International Union of Architects’ [Public Health Group] (http://www.uia-public-health-group.org/) , an organization that promotes building design that contributes to patient healing.

The group meets annually to share the latest knowledge in health care facility design with architects, engineers and consultants, health care organizations and professionals through presentations, poster sessions and discussions.

Kanakri is currently [studying] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2012/7/31/autism-acoustics-impact/) the impact of acoustics on autistic students’ learning. She is a registered architect in Jordan, with seven years of experience in professional practice and hospital design at a Jordanian firm specializing in Islamic architecture research.

An AutoCAD specialist, she was an architecture lecturer for four years at the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture.

Her previous research on design’s effects on autistic students has been published in Healthcare Environments for Children with Autism, Architecture Studios Design, and Healthcare Facilities in Islamic Architecture.

The UIA’s Public Health Group is [headed] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2012/4/3/mann-elected-direct/) by George J. Mann, Texas A&M professor of architecture and holder of the Skaggs and Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facilities Design.