Amy Yurko, AIA

Founder & President, Brain Spaces, Inc.

brainspaces.com

Amy is the founder and President of BrainSpaces, Inc. As both a licensed architect and educator, she applies brain-based strategies to the planning and design of learning environments. Incorporating a growing body of research, her firm’s unique approach blends education and architecture, promoting the allocation of physical resources where they will yield the maximum educational value. Through an extensive body of work, Amy had earned recognition as expert in her field, and is consistently invited to teach, speak, write and participate in design juries. Amy has a keen understanding of the challenges in education today, reinforced through faculty positions held at Harvard University, the University of Southern California, Illinois Institute of Technology, and within Chicago Public Schools.

Amy is known for a straightforward style and no-nonsense approach and has a proven talent for bringing people and ideas together in new ways. She is accomplished at leading school systems and their teams, groups, committees and communities through innovative, inclusive and consensus-building processes. Insightful, fun, and challenging, these processes are designed to ensure that investments in school facilities are meaningful for diverse interest groups, to incorporate proven strategies for supporting brain-based learning, and to embrace change with agility and grace.