IES Light For Life® Virtual Symposium 2025: Lighting for Healthcare

Shanna Olson leads IMEG's architectural lighting group, drawing on more than a decade of experience creating aesthetically pleasing, efficient, and in-budget lighting designs for municipal, healthcare, educational, retail, historic renovation, and commercial clients.

Lauren is Mazzetti’s healthcare lighting expert, with more than 18 years of experience and a portfolio filled with notable clients and facilities such as MD Anderson and MSK. With a specialty in healthcare and integrated design, she is committed to delivering lighting design solutions that ensure an environment fully conducive to health, wellness, and healing. Lauren is actively involved in advancing her industry. She sits on the IES Healthcare Committee, is an active member for her local AMFP group and is an affiliate member of the Center for Health Design. She is truly passionate with her work and always looking to the latest research as her guiding principles.

Mariel Acevedo, LC, Member IES, has been involved in the lighting industry since 2003. She studied Theater and Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, specializing in Theater Lighting Design, and later went on to work in architectural lighting design for the largest lighting representative in Puerto Rico. In 2009, she got her Lighting Consultant Certification and in 2013 relocated to Portland, OR.

Currently works as Specification Sales for ALR in Portland, OR. She is the chair of the IES Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Respect Committee, vice-chair of the IES Steering Committee and 12-year member of the IES Leadership Forum.

Kimberly Mercier is the Managing Principal of Lighting Design Innovations and is a lighting designer and professional engineer in the United States and Canada. She holds an MBA from SUNY at Buffalo and her experience includes managing electrical departments for consulting engineering firms in Calgary, Alberta and Buffalo and Rochester, NY. Kimberly is a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Lighting Efficiency Professional.Kimberly is a Past President of the Illuminating Engineering Society and award winning Lighting Designer and Educator.

Tommy Nichols, LC is the Business Unit Leader for Hydrel, under Acuity Brands Lighting specializing in outdoor architectural solutions. Tommy has grown into his role as Business Unit Leader as a 10 year professional in the lighting industry, with areas of underwater lighting, landscape and tree illumination, and has a dedication to unveiling the beauty of outdoor environments with light and color.

Karen Murphy LC, IALD, LEED AP is a senior professional associate with HDR in Princeton NJ, and has been an architectural lighting designer for over 30 years. She currently chairs the IES Healthcare Lighting Committee and is a member of the IES Light + Design Committee. Karen served as a technical reviewer for the National Institute of Health’s 2016 edition of the Design Requirements Manual, and is part of the lighting task force with the Facilities Guidelines Institute. In addition to decades of project work with large healthcare, research, and government agencies, she has developed lighting guidelines for the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs, NY Presbyterian, and Proctor & Gamble, as well as written the outdoor lighting ordinance for Hopewell Township NJ. Karen has received multiple design awards and has been published in Architectural Lighting, Facility Design & Management, EC&M, and ALN. She is a graduate of Penn State University’s architectural engineering program with a specialty in lighting and electrical systems.

C. Brooke Silber is a Principal and Director at BR+A’s Borealis Lighting Studio housed in the New York City Office. Brooke has over 25 years of experience as an architectural and landscape lighting designer with a passion for large-scale public and private projects. Her award-winning portfolio features a diversity of project types including; healthcare, historic preservation, corporate interiors, civic buildings, academic institutions, security command centers,  transportation facilities, museums, retail, hospitality, religious, and residential.

Brooke received her Master of Science in Lighting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in Interior Design. She is a Lighting Certified Professional and a LEED Accredited Professional. In addition to her involvement in the joint IES/Avixa ANSI standard committee for Lighting for Videoconferencing and Multi-media Spaces; she is a part-time faculty at Parsons The New School of Constructed Environments for their Master’s program in Lighting. Brooke is an active member of IES and is a frequent speaker at many industry events such as LEDucation and Lightfair.

Brienne Willcock joined the IES staff in 2019, and is now the IES Director of Education and Standards. With the help of important advisors in the IES membership and a dedicated staff, she leads the strategy for content development in technical standards and in education. Her past experience as an architectural lighting designer contributes to her ability to manage programs, seek input from stakeholders, and curate content for the benefit of IES members and non-member partners. She was one of Lighting Magazine’s International 40 under 40 in 2017, and past president of the Detroit IES section (2013-2015). She served as IES Annual Conference Committee Chair in 2016 and 2017.

Mark has designed interior and exterior lighting systems for a wide range of applications including residential, municipal, retail, healthcare, energy audit retrofits and both conventional and nuclear power plants. He started his lighting career managing home centers and a lighting center providing sales and design specifications.  Mark has provided lighting education while working, presenting, and teaching across five continents.  He serves on over twenty lighting related committees including ASHRAE, ANSI, IEEE, ICC, IUVA, IDA, NALMCO, NLB and the IES.  As a part of his work, he monitors over 100 lighting and technology related organizations.

Mark is a columnist for Lighting Design and Application Magazine writing on the changes in our industry and he hosts a podcast on lighting trends and technologies.  Mark has served on multiple boards and is currently on several executive committees advising various organizations.  Mark ran the educational centers for both Cooper and Hubbell Lighting and was the Director of Government & Industry Relations for OSRAM SYLVANIA before joining the Illuminating Engineering Society. He serves as industry consultant to the IES today through his company, Augmented Illumination.  Mark has been inducted into the Michigan Lighting Hall of Fame, has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Edison Report and Presidential Awards from the IES.

Mark Lien LC, C-GUVMP, CLEP, CLMC, HBDP, LEED AP