Stephanie (Associate Architect and Inclusive Design Consultant at Floyd Slaski Architects) is an innovator and influencer driving practical, positive change in mental healthcare environments, particularly for neurodivergent people and people with non-visible disabilities. Her work strengthens how teams design and deliver spaces, how organisations learn from service users, and how the wider industry specifies and evaluates inclusive environments.
Stephanie was recognised with the AJ100 Changemaker Award for her contribution to the profession. Over the last 12 months she has accelerated the conversation around neuro-inclusive design, leading design on mental health focused projects while also embedding neurodiversity and inclusive design as a standard expectation across every building type, particularly in “non-specialist” settings where clients often assume it isn’t relevant, but where it can make the biggest difference
A standout achievement this year has been her role in shaping Floyd Slaski’s stakeholder engagement strategy, which prioritises meaningful co-design beyond a tick-box exercise. Stephanie has developed and taught approaches that work with end user stakeholders, regardless of communication style or cognitive ability. The emphasis is on dignity and inclusion, finding methods that allow people to express preferences and needs even where traditional consultation fails, and turning that insight into clear design decisions that teams can act on. This improves outcomes for service users and staff, and supports resource efficiency by reducing avoidable redesign and late-stage changes driven by assumptions rather than evidence.
Stephanie’s influence extends beyond individual projects into guidance and industry change. She co-authored AUDE’s published toolkit, Neurodiversity – Design and management guide for Higher Education environments, which is now used by 188 institutions worldwide, raising the baseline for neuro-inclusive environments across the sector. While higher education focused, the guide’s principles and methods are applicable to all typologies, and support a preventative approach, improving everyday environments, particularly at a time when student mental health outcomes are worsening. It helps shift “mental health design” upstream, embedding sensory comfort, clarity, predictability, privacy and autonomy into mainstream building typologies, not just specialist settings.
She also advises manufacturers, helping translate neuro-inclusive needs into specifications, product development priorities and performance criteria. Recent examples include contributing to Altro’s work on chroma values, and Dulux’s inclusive design resources, both of which help designers make more informed material and colour decisions.
Despite being early in her career, Stephanie is a renowned national and international speaker and educator, and a Specialist Advisor on the NeuroPlaces Board, bringing this same evidence-led, practical focus to shaping wider industry conversations about neuroinclusive environments. She delivers CPD and training to clients, design teams and contractors, has contributed to published articles and panels, and has featured in several podcasts and roundtables, as well as white papers and both design-based and stakeholder engagement toolkits. She is also the youngest person to be appointed as Assistant Professor of Architectural Design at the University of Nottingham, lecturing on all three RIBA courses, using teaching to inform practice and inspire the next generation of architects to treat inclusion as core design quality, not an add-on.
