About this episode

The episode discusses the critical connection between school facilities and student success with guest Alana Pinckley.

This week on Better Buildings for Humans, host Joe Menchefski welcomes Alana Pinckley, Chief Engagement Officer of the American Coalition for Educational Environments (ACE) and host of the Empowered K-12 Podcast, for an insightful conversation about the critical connection between school facilities, student wellbeing, and the future of educational environments. Drawing on her unique journey from information technology into K-12 advocacy, Alana shares how her passion for healthier schools has led her to connect educators, facility leaders, researchers, and industry partners around a common mission: creating learning environments where every student and educator can thrive. The discussion explores everything from indoor air quality, natural daylight, school safety, and trauma-informed design to deferred maintenance, carbon reduction, and the growing importance of designing schools around both human health and long-term sustainability. Alana explains why healthy buildings should never require a tradeoff between environmental performance and student wellbeing, how research can be translated into practical decisions for school districts, and why collaboration across educators…

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