Kayla Friedman

Dr Kayla Friedman is a Programme Director at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Course Director for the Master's and Postgraduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE).  She has a keen interest in bridging the gap between academia and industry through teaching, research, and practice. Kayla is a licensed New York State Architect, and graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia. She received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Cambridge, Centre for Sustainable Development, as part of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Grosvenor funded Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment Research Programme. The PhD examined English planning as a barrier to the thermal improvement of conservation properties.

Following graduation from The University of Virginia in 1996 (BSc in Architecture) and Washington University in St Louis in 2002 (MSc Hons in Architecture and Urban Design), Kayla moved to London where she worked as an Urban Designer with Levitt Bernstein Associates from 2003 to 2009. Focusing primarily on social housing regeneration projects in London and UK, she experienced first-hand how the changing environmental policy landscape was continuously influencing the development of the built environment and became very interested in developing integrated environmental design solutions at the community and neighbourhood scales.  Since moving into full-time academia, Kayla’s work has predominantly involved exploring interdsiciplinary collaboration and teamworking as a fundamental aspect of built environment practice as a way of delivering more sustainable and resilient outcomes.  Her current work explores how skills to support better practice can be developed amongst professionals.