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SESSION two

Designing for Connection: Biophilic Principles in High-Stress Environments

Rachel Theurer, IIDA Designer @ Shepley Bulfinch

Rachel is a seasoned designer with over 20 years of experience, specializing in creating environments that blend empathy, aesthetics, and functionality. Her work integrates sustainability and human-centered design across interdisciplinary projects. With advanced degrees in Architecture, Interior Design, and Human Behavior, she brings a research-informed, empathetic perspective to demonstrating the positive impact of thoughtfully designed spaces. Her work has been featured in television and print.

Natalie Thurman is a principal in Shepley Bulfinch’s Houston studio, leading projects nationwide across healthcare, higher education, and research. She brings a collaborative, client-centered approach to creating environments that foster community, support well-being, and elevate the user experience. Her portfolio spans specialized spaces to large institutional campuses, consistently emphasizing thoughtful, innovative, and functional design. Recognized with numerous awards and publications, Natalie is also active in shaping the profession’s future through her service on SCUP’s regional council and her mentorship work with RAMP. She was recently selected for the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative’s Amplify Women Program.

Sonja has over 25 years of experience as a health- and wellness-focused commercial interior designer and biophilic design consultant creating meaningful and health spaces. She specializes in collaborating with clients to create inspirational project designs that provide sensory rich, compassionate, beautiful environments that foster collaboration, health, and wellbeing. Sonja’s project work respects and supports our communities and their surrounding environment while also promoting human physical and physiological health benefits and creating places of wellness. Her design portfolio includes award-winning education, community, healthcare, cultural, residential, and corporate spaces.

Transforming an Iconic Campus Landscape: Sustainability and Stewardship at Rice University

George Ristow, University Architect and Assistant Vice President of Planning and Design @ Rice University

George Ristow is University Architect and Assistant Vice President of Planning and Design at Rice University. A registered architect since 2008, he has overseen the initiation of several major capital projects at Rice in collaboration with the Board of Trustees since 2020, and led the development of Rice’s 10-30 year campus land use plan adopted in 2024. Prior to Rice, George practiced architecture as a design consultant for 15 years, primarily in Philadelphia, with several institutional clients across the United States.

Richard Johnson is the Senior Executive Director for Sustainability at Rice University, where he leads the Office of Sustainability. Richard holds an appointment as a Professor in the Practice of Environmental Studies in Sociology, as an adjunct lecturer in the School of Humanities, and as the co-director of Rice’s Environmental Studies Program.

Dr. Cassidy Johnson is an Assistant Teaching Professor in BioSciences at Rice University where she leads that university’s Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum. Her research involves the restoration of the Harris Gully Natural Area (HGNA) at Rice, the goal of which is to establish the HGNA as a “living laboratory” dedicated to the study and protection of urban biodiversity and conservation by the Rice community.

Brent Moon has a broad background with experience in creating and maintaining lush, sustainable landscapes in such places as the Missouri Botanical Garden, Houston Botanic Garden, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, and recently joined Rice University as Director of Campus Grounds and Landscape Design. Brent’s love of the outdoors shines though in his conservation efforts with rare and endangered oak species as well as his hobby of wildlife and nature photography.

Ian Housman serves as the Energy and Water Conservation Manager for the Office of Sustainability at Rice. This role enjoys working on utility conservation projects that have measurable results. Ian has received a B.S. in Physics from Stephen F. Austin State University, has a background in Data Science and Visualization, and one day hopes to earn his Certified Energy Manager license.

Culture, Climate, and Community: Landscapes of the Ismaili Center, Houston (Walking Tour)

Jeff Aten, ASLA, PLA, Principal @ Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Jeff Aten joined Nelson Byrd Woltz in 2004 after earning master’s degrees in architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Virginia. He has worked on private projects varying in scale from small residential gardens to large conservation agriculture farms. In the public realm he has worked on municipal parks of just a couple acres up to 1,500 acres, and higher education teaching landscapes to master plans. His work, and his team’s work, has received accolades at the highest state, national and international levels. He has led the award-winning master plan for Memorial Park in Houston, TX and its implementation; the selected winning entry for the Ismaili Center Gardens in Houston, TX and the project’s construction; and various landscape gardens at the University of Virginia. He has served as the Vice-chair and Chair of the Charlottesville Tree Commission and loves to bike on the rural roads at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

Recent work includes leading the broad design team implementing work as part of the Ten-Year Plan at Memorial Park that builds off the 2015 master plan. Completed to date are the award-winning Eastern Glades, Land Bridge and Prairie, and the Timing Track and Running Center. The design for Memorial Groves, a landscape honoring the park’s history as a World War I military training camp — Camp Logan — is underway. 

Additionally, Jeff is the Principal in Charge for the Contemplative Commons project being constructed at the University of Virginia, and the Ismaili Center Gardens in Houston TX, the first Ismaili cultural center in the United States.