I use qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to understand how people experience systems of care, work, and urban life. My research combines embodied observation (documenting my own experiences as a caregiver navigating public institutions), semi-structured interviews with caregivers and elders, spatial documentation and analysis, and institutional case studies. The goal is generating insights that inform both strategy and implementation—bridging lived experience with systemic design. This research produces frameworks like the Care-Centered Design Framework, comparative analyses across welfare regimes, and design requirements that emerge from caregiver expertise.

I analyze how built environments either enable or foreclose care relationships, drawing on embodied observation as a caregiver and years of spatial problem-solving through workshop and program design. This includes documenting existing configurations (circulation patterns, amenities, sightlines), identifying design failures, and proposing concrete interventions: signage systems, furniture reconfigurations, operational changes like flexible programming or re-entry policies. My focus is on interventions that don't require major capital investment—practical solutions institutions can implement within existing constraints while we advocate for more fundamental redesign.

I design and facilitate workshops where caregivers, elders, and community members co-create solutions to infrastructure gaps they experience daily. This involves creating safe spaces for sharing lived experiences, translating those experiences into design requirements, prototyping spatial and organizational alternatives together, and refining solutions through iterative feedback. My facilitation draws on years of practice with diverse communities—from Indigenous groups in the Yukon to urban caregivers across contexts—centering participants as design experts whose knowledge shapes outcomes. Workshops produce spatial prototypes, governance models, and implementation strategies grounded in community wisdom.

I help institutions develop strategies and governance structures that treat care as core mission rather than accommodation. This includes organizational assessments using the Care-Centered Design Framework, strategic planning that integrates caregiver needs into operations and programming, policy development (family-friendly policies, accessibility standards, staff training protocols), and governance model design for purpose-built care infrastructure like cohousing and care commons. The goal is embedding care-centered thinking into institutional DNA—not as add-on diversity initiative but as fundamental operating principle that shapes resource allocation, decision-making, and organizational culture.

I examine how different policy contexts—market-driven (US), social democratic (Nordic countries), state-engineered (Singapore)—shape possibilities for care infrastructure. This comparative work identifies what's transferable across contexts versus what requires local adaptation, revealing how welfare regimes, zoning regulations, funding mechanisms, and cultural norms enable or constrain care infrastructure development. The analysis produces policy toolkits tailored to specific contexts: municipal strategies for cities with limited public funding, regulatory reforms for enabling care commons, public-private partnership models, and implementation pathways that account for local political economy. This work helps practitioners understand what's possible in their context.