Meet the team

Shiva Mendez

Founder/Lead Planner

Shiva is a 35-year veteran of the architecture, design, and construction industry, specializing in medical planning and programming. Her extensive portfolio spans projects of all scales and types. This includes community hospitals, academic medical centers, regional health systems, and international healthcare facilities.

Driven by a passion for lasting community impact, Shiva designs with deep empathy for healthcare providers. This human-centered approach is the hallmark of her award-winning work in behavioral health and specialized medical facilities, balancing technical requirements with safe, healing environments.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis.
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

  • Strategic Advisory

    • Master Planning: Establish long-term capital and spatial frameworks.

    • Scope Definition: Align leadership on vision and success criteria.

    • Lead Planner: Provide executive ownership advocacy pre-A/E engagement.

    Optimization & Review

    • Feasibility Analysis: Facility capacity and development viability.

    • Lean Design: Maximize spatial efficiency and operational workflows.

    • Peer Review: Audit schematic plans to mitigate programmatic risks.

Hamila Kownacki

Advisor: Strategic/Operational Leader

Hamila is a progressive healthcare leader with more than 25 years of C-suite experience spanning executive leadership, operations, clinical care, and philanthropy. Most recently serving as CEO of a multi-campus health system with over $1.7B in revenue, she led transformative growth, secured major capital investments, and strengthened performance while deepening community trust. She is known for guiding complex organizations through change and for building partnerships that expand access and improve patient outcomes.

Known for balancing disciplined financial stewardship with mission-driven leadership, Hamila has led organizations through periods of significant growth, restructuring, and system-wide transformation.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis.
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

    • Enterprise Transformation

    • Financial Stewardship

    • Governance & Board Leadership

    • Healthcare Operations

    • Capital Planning & Growth Strategy

    • Quality, Safety & Operational Excellence

    • Stakeholder & Community Engagement

    • Philanthropy & Fundraising

Carlos Villalva

Advisor: Executive Capital Project Management

Carlos has spent 35 years working in healthcare planning, design and construction across a broad spectrum of project types, often adjacent to occupied patient care areas.

Additionally, he has extensive experience managing local and state regulatory requirements in California and New York for hospital-based projects. He enjoys developing project scopes, schedules and capital budgets from inception, as well as overseeing the complexities of construction and activation.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

    • Project scope definition, budget and schedule

    • Capital program forecasting and cash flow modeling

    • QA/QC of project documents

    • Represent the owner on regulatory approvals

    • Advise the owner on legislative remedies for seismic compliance and building code interpretation

    • Executive oversight on complex capital improvements

      • Diagnostic imaging – MRI, CT, PET-CT, Fluoroscopy, ERCP

      • Clinical Pharmacy – USP 795, 797, 800, 825

      • Clinical lab and cGMP labs

      • Operating theaters, PACU and ICU

      • Sterile processing

      • Life safety systems

      • Low voltage systems and technology

      • Central utility systems – generators, switchgear, steam, process gas

Meredith Fondahl​

Enterprise Real Estate & Operations​

Over 30+ years, Meredith’s career has spanned start-ups, enterprise reboots and exponential growth periods in academic healthcare, finance and hi-tech environments. In roles that range from sole real estate consultant to utility player to executive leader of large organizations, Meredith has repeatedly earned a trusted advisor status as she executed real estate leasing and acquisitions, strategy, developed entire teams, built KPIs and managed operations, lease administrations, global and planning services, Meredith’s one thru-line mission -- to build the enterprise systems and controls to financially optimize and strategically manage real estate portfolios and related planning services, so they in turn support the workforce and the patients and clients they serve.

Meredith is at home in highly matrixed, self-directed environments where she can partner across the organization with Finance, Legal, IT, Tax, Regulatory, User and Operations teams.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis.
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

  • Real Estate Scope Development

    • Financial and site scoping, User Requirements & Planning Integration,
      Executive evaluation, Land Use Oversight

    Real Estate Leasing & Acquisitions

    • Negotiations, 3rd Party Development Strategies. Deal documentation,
      financial assessment, board documents, execution

    Portfolio & Asset Management

    • Review, Development, Realignment, Consolidations, Relationship
      Management, Financial structuring or valuation reviews, Lease
      Administration, Milestone Management

    Enterprise Systems Development/Management

    • Team or process development, optimization, leadership, coaching

Alexis Denton

Advisor: Strategic/Operational Leader

Alexis’s goal is to enhance the quality of life for an aging population through research-driven design of the physical environment. She has designed senior living communities across the US and China, with a focus on environments for the most vulnerable residents, including those in memory care and skilled nursing.

After many years leading practice strategy at large architectural firms, she now consults to owners and architects, teaching them how to design invisibly supportive environments for older adults. She regularly writes and speaks on environmental gerontology and serves as a guest lecturer on the impact of the environment on health and quality of life at USC’s School of Gerontology. Her passion is the relationship between the built environment and quality of life and health outcomes.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis.
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

    • Strategic planning, master planning, and service planning for the aging experience

    • Building programming and planning

    • Design review of existing buildings or designs for aging appropriateness

    • Design team engagement, evaluation, and oversight

    • Integrating current environmental gerontology research into design

    • Education sessions on designing for older adults and the market

Heather Fenniman

Collaborator / Senior Medical Planner

Heather has been programming, planning and delivering successful healthcare projects for the past 20 years. With a focus on operational planning and utilizing data to inform key programming components, she excels at managing complex projects through a collaborative and inclusive approach.

Her knowledge of healthcare operations, medical technology and facility design enables her to engage with client leadership, clinicians and design teams to develop a customized solution tailored to fit operational needs while exploring new ways of shaping space to enhance patient care and plan for the future.

Available for advisory retainer and project basis.
Fractional Leader rate can be provided upon request

    • Master Planning - Develop long-range facility and capital investment strategies aligned with organizational goals.

    • Feasibility Assessment -Evaluate facility capacity, operational needs, and development opportunities.

    • Medical Planning & Programming – Translate clinical and operational goals into efficient, patient-centered space programs that optimize performance.

    • Clinical Operations Assessment – Evaluate workflows, patient flow, staffing models, and operational performance to identify opportunities for improvement.

    • Facility Optimization – Maximize the value of existing assets through space utilization, operational efficiencies, and strategic repositioning before investing in new construction.

    • Process Leadership: Lead multidisciplinary teams through complex planning decisions while building alignment across executive and clinical leadership.

    • 3P Facilitation

    Subject Matter Expertise:

    • Ambulatory Care Facilities

    • Diagnostics and Treatment Spaces (Oncology, Procedural, ED, Imaging)

    • Inpatient Care

Karen Vegas

Collaborator, Project Feasibility, Owner Representation, & construction

Karen brings 30 years of experience in healthcare design and construction from the perspective of the architect, general contractor and the owner.  For the past 20 years, she has partnered with health systems to develop and execute the long-term master plans that advance each organization's strategic vision. 

A Lean Black Belt, Karen applies process improvement principles to every phase of planning, design and construction.  This disciplined approach brings clarity to complex decisions, helping leadership teams align on priorities, reduce waste and invest where it matters most.

Fiercely committed to the responsible stewardship of the health system's resources, Karen knows that her work is ultimately in service of the patients. Her goal is to build beautiful facilities that exist to support patient care, not overshadow it.

Available for advisory retainer, or specific project scope.

  • Master Planning & Strategy

    • Long-Term Master Planning: Develop facility plans that advance the health system's strategic vision.

    • Capital Planning: Prioritize and phase investments to make the most of every dollar.

    Lean Process Improvement

    • Lean Facility Design: Shape spaces around efficient workflows for staff and patients.

    • Decision Support: Bring structure and data to complex choices so leadership can move forward with confidence.

    • Workshop Facilitation: Lead teams through Lean events that test ideas before they're built.

    Owner Advocacy

    • Owner's Representation: Guide projects from planning through construction on the health system's behalf.

    • Design & Constructability Review: Apply architect, contractor, and owner experience to catch issues early.

    • Project Team Alignment: Keep architects, contractors, and stakeholders focused on shared goals.

    Stakeholder Engagement

    • Leadership Alignment: Build consensus on vision, priorities, and success criteria.

    • Clinical Collaboration: Engage frontline staff so facilities reflect how care is actually delivered.

Chang-yeon cho

Analytics Partner (Synthetic Studio)/ Simulation and Data Strategy
Analytics Partner (Synthetic Studio)/ Simulation and Data Strategy

Chang has been pioneerings evidence based design methodologies using computational design and simulation for a decade. ​

As a co-founder/CEO of Synthetic Studio, Chang is developing a cognitive agent-based simulation for a healthcare environment where operations, providers, patients, and physical space can be modeled together to understand the ecosystem dynamics in the future.  ​

w​ww.syntheticstudio.ai​

Available for advisory retainer, and analytics/and simulation scope basis (Team and platform offering)

    • Data Analytics Services for making sense of client data for planning decisions. (ie post-occupancy, operational pattern analysis, etc.)​

    • Clinical Operation Modeling – create a simulation for clinical operation to test different scenarios and  a range of outcomes​

    • Future service (process, staffing and space) validation – visualize and validate performance expectations using the simulation model​

    • Experience-based KPI modeling – quantify provider and patient journeys to model provider and patient experience that impacts overall system performance.  ​


    Subject Matter Expertise:​

    • Agent based simulation​

    • Data analytics​

    • Enterprise data strategy ​

    • IoT and Smart building​

Vicki Lucas

Collaborator: Subject Matter Expert in Women’s and Children’s Services

For the past 35 years, Dr. Lucas has been recognized as one of the foremost leaders in Women’s and Children’s Health. She was chairman of the Division of Women and Childbearing Families at The University of Texas and is currently adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Lucas has published and presented widely across the world and is highly sought after as a keynote speaker. For over 2 decades, she served in senior executive roles across two large health systems with full-service women’s and children’s services. Following her executive positions, she served as a consultant to hundreds of clients from all major health related industries across the United Staes, the Middle East and Europe, and has procured over $15M in grants.

Her passion is to improve the health of women and children across the world through the integration of customer experience, clinical knowledge and the science of business. Dr. Lucas has extensive experience in strategic planning, risk reduction, business development, process improvement, market research, market planning, brand identification, facility planning, program development, product development, provider development, integration strategies and women’s and children’s service line development. She has conducted extensive market research and maintains a clearinghouse of data, white papers and strategies. Some of her Advisory clients include CDC, NIH, HHS, States Texas, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, ANA, AHA, Center for American Nurses, The Advisory Board, The Jacobs Institute, The Snowmass Institute, Spirit of Women Hospital Network, American Medical Exchange, AAP, ACOG and AWHONN.

Available on a Retainer, Hourly, or Project Basis​

  • Strategic Advisory

    • Strategic planning for women's and children's services

    • Free-standing children's hospital planning

    • Provider development, practice management and productivity

    • Quality assurance, regulatory compliance and risk reduction

    • Oricetions improvement, patient flow design and staffing

    • Financial analysis, cost reduction and revenue enhancement

    • Facilities design, space planning and building project management

    • Busineșs development, product improvement and market expansion

    • Leadership and service line development, organization structure analysis

    • Technology assessment and electronic medical records implementation

    • Women's hospital and women's center strategic planning