Cognitive Design is a curated network of diverse, respected and active field leaders working together with a common goal: to improve people's lives by studying complex issues related to the design and use of the built environment. Photos: Matthew A. Finn.
Our People
Cognitive Design is a curated network of diverse, respected and active field leaders working together with a common goal: to improve people's lives by studying complex issues related to the design and use of the built environment.
Led by Founder, Matt Finn, we assemble interdisciplinarity teams to address each of our client's objectives, through deep collaboration across multiple professions - this comprehensive approach renders us capable of tackling problems too complex to be solved within a single profession.
We are designers, researchers, and subject matter experts. We're credible, intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, comprehensive, compassionate, creative, justified for-being-unconventional, clever, smart, artful, human-centric, conceptual, analytic, passionate and detailed... all with a nerdy twist.
Sound like a community of which you’d like to be a part? Scroll to the bottom of this page and fill out the form to join the Cognitive Design Network.
Photo: Terrell Clark
Matt Finn
Matthew A. Finn AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
Founder
Email: matt@cognitive.design
Matt is passionate about how the built environment influences human health. As a social entrepreneur and architect, Finn founded Cognitive Design in 2016 - a consulting and design firm that fuses architecture and health.
Finn splits his time between his native Atlanta and Molino, a rural town in the Florida panhandle, where he currently resides with his wife, Stephanie, and their two daughters. After graduating from Kennesaw State University, he began his professional career at Perkins and Will, where he gained valuable experience delivering exceptional client service while working on complex architectural projects. Finn is known for asking the right questions and for maintaining continuity of thought from concept through design, documentation, and construction.
Matt’s interdisciplinary research and innovative thinking have been recognized by Healthcare Design magazine, who named Matt the 2016 HCD 10 Researcher. Additionally, Matt’s work has been featured by numerous academic institutions, media outlets and conferences including the U.S. Green Building Council, Academy of Neuroscience For Architecture and the American Institute of Architects.
With every project, Matt brings his contagious enthusiasm to architecture for health.
Majd Gharib
Majd Gharib, B/Arch, MC
Consultant, Research and Design
You ask and Majd will find what’s out there! Majd believes in scientific research as a reliable source of information that can help any specialist to make wiser decisions in practice. Majd is an Architect with a Master’s Degree in Construction, where he wrote an interdisciplinary thesis that proposed psychological factors to enhance mental health in the post-war urban reconstruction.
Being tri-lingual, Majd has worked with several architectural firms and collaborated with reputable researchers internationally. These collaborations have resulted in a number of published research papers and built architectural projects.
Majd’s research on complex interdisciplinary concepts in architectural and urban design projects has prepared him for joining the team of Cognitive Design as a Research and Design Consultant. For Cognitive Design, Majd’s helps explore the scientific literature following a biopsychosocial model to generate evidence-based considerations for research publications and architectural design projects.
Photo: Bonnie Heath
Meldrena Chapin
Meldrena Chapin, Ph.D., SEED, WELL
Consultant, Environment-Behavior Researcher
Email: meldrena@cognitive.design
Meldrena is intrigued by the inter-relationship between the built environment and its occupants.
After graduating from the College of Architecture at UNCC, she began working in Senior Living Design with FreemanWhite and pursued a Masters in Gerontology at UNCC at night. After several years in practice, Meldrena moved from North Carolina to Wisconsin where she earned a PhD in Architecture at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. After completing her dissertation on with a focus on culture change and environmental design, Dr. Chapin has served as an educator at UNCC, the Art Institute and SCAD-Atlanta. Dr. Chapin currently serves as a faculty for the Erickson School of Aging at UMBC and operates The Design Research Consultancy.
Dr. Chapin’s research on wellness through supportive design for aging and bariatric design has been featured in Environments for Aging magazine. She was honored to serve as the keynote speaker for the Space Seminar on Health Space Design 2015, Hanze University, Groningen, Netherlands. Dr. Chapin’s work has been featured by numerous organizations conferences, and academic publications including the Environmental Design Research Association, the Gerontological Society of America, the Interior Design Educator’s Council, and the American Institute of Architects.
Dr. Chapin is known for her ability to simplify the complex and explaining systems thinking, or as she likes to say, connecting the dots.
Wayne Jones
C. Wayne Jones, IIDA, NCIDQ, LEED AP BD + C
Consultant, Architecture and Interior Design
Email: wayne@cognitive.design
Wayne is a native of Augusta, GA, and doesn’t like golf (the Masters Tournament notwithstanding), where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Augusta University. Wayne went on to study at the University of Georgia, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design and then a Master of Architecture degree from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).
One of Wayne’s most meaningful work experiences was living in Pune, India where he volunteered for a year with Shelter Associates, a non-profit supporting their work to improve sanitation and housing for the urban poor. Affordable housing continues to be a topic he is passionate about, both internationally and in Atlanta. Wayne has extensive experience working on healthcare projects; improving the lives of the people who work in and use these spaces is a driving inspiration.
Wayne consults regularly with Cognitive Design, contributing meaningfully to architectural and interior design projects. Wayne is a member of IIDA's Atlanta chapter and was an early supporter of USGBC obtaining his LEED AP certification in 2006.
Stephanie Finn
Stephanie M. Finn, MS, RN, CPNP
Consultant, Physiology Research and Design
Email: stephanie@cognitive.design
Stephanie is a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Registered Nurse who provides compassionate and holistic care that promote pediatric health. Stephanie has worked in a variety of settings including integrative pediatrics, rural pediatric primary care, adult cardiac care, pediatric surgery, medical missions in Ecuador and Brazil, and management. While at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), she initiated and led the Greening and Reducing Operational Waste (GROW) committee in the surgery department, one of the first of its kind in the country to diverting surgical waste from landfills. Additionally, Stephanie served as the CHOA Green Councils Clinical Staff Representative and was a Design Consultant for an award-winning Rush University Medical Center patient room design competition.
With a strong strong interest in the interplay of environment and health and a commitment to improving health for children, families, and communities, Stephanie’s 15 years in nursing have uniquely positioned her to contribute valuable knowledge and insights to many of Cognitive Design’s consulting, design and research projects.
Edward Vega
Edward M. Vega, Ph.D.
Consultant, Psychology Research and Design
Email: edward@cognitive.design
Edward is a clinical psychologist in the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Health Care System, where he is the Clinical Director of Acute Mental Health Services, including providing oversight for clinical operations in an acute psychiatric inpatient unit and walk-in mental health services.
Prior to becoming a psychologist, he served as a Cobb County Police Officer for 4 years, specializing in the investigation of domestic violence cases. His professional interests include effective treatment of anxiety and trauma related disorders, and resilience and vulnerability in various populations (e.g., law enforcement officers, survivors of intimate partner aggression, military service members). Edward has co-authored books and articles on resilience, anxiety, and assessment and treatment issues, and continues to be involved in the education of law enforcement officers regarding traumatic stress and anxiety disorders.
As a consultant with Cognitive Design, Edward contributes deep and meaningful expertise in psychology and human behavior during the design process. Edward’s contributions appear in many built and academic works including Posttraumatic Understanding, X3 Sports, and Clarity Fitness.