CRTKL’s Alice Wainwright Announces Her Retirement

Announcement | December 23, 2020

Alice Wainwright, RN, MSN, NHA, FACHE, Senior Associate Vice President, joined CallisonRTKL as an experienced healthcare executive known for increasing quality, decreasing costs and boosting revenue. Her management skills and clinical experience directly translate to improved outcomes in her leadership role with CallisonRTKL’s Facilities Transitioning Team. Alice also applies these skills to form long-lasting relationships with staff, physicians and communities.

Q: What inspired you to get into architecture as a nurse?

A: I was really inspired by the person who hired me and his vision for healthcare in architecture.  He knew that CallisonRTKL built great buildings, but he wanted to ensure that they functioned the best they could for the people inside of them. He was very passionate about making sure that he had staff or resources available to work with his architects so that as they were designing healthcare facilities, they knew how the staff and the people worked and how they functioned. With help from people like me, he could develop a design that was supportive of how healthcare operates. In healthcare, it needs to be more than just a pretty picture– he wanted to make sure that they designed something that was beneficial for the staff—and the patients– who got care and services.

Q: What project are you most proud of working on?

A: Probably our project that was in San Francisco—Sutter’s Californian Pacific Campus. We took four facilities and combined them into two, brand-new facilities and we moved over 200 patients to their new care without one problem. The team provided consulting support for occupancy planning, personal preparedness, operational building readiness and move management for the two campuses.

Q: What excites you most about the future of healthcare in architecture?

A: I think that we’ll see a re-distribution in how people are treated in the healthcare system. I believe hospitals are going to be really taking care of sick patients and, with that, they’ll have to re-design their space to support critical patient care. I think architecture really has an opportunity to be creative here and allow for that. We’re going to have to re-work what’s already done. I believe that there’s going to be creative ways to re-design spaces to support the different levels of care that are going to occur in, say hospitals.  Not only hospitals, but I believe a lot of the less critical care that was delivered there originally will go into spaces that were not originally designed for healthcare. Maybe outpatient facilities could even fill old hotel or shopping malls.  There’s so much talent at CRTKL and, with their experience in retail, they can make healthcare more user-friendly.


As Alice announces her retirement, her colleagues weigh in on the impact she has had on both the firm and their careers:

“Alice has had an amazing career at CallisonRTKL.  She joined as a clinical consultant working along side the architects helping liaison between hospitals and our planning teams.  She maintained this role for many years until she built a new business, transition planning, within our healthcare practice.  Her legacy extends well beyond the places she has worked, but also the clinical staff she mentored, the architects she trained, and the thousands of patients and their families that receive care within the facilities she helps open and operate efficiently.  Thank you, Alice, for your leadership and dedication to our practice.  Congratulations on your retirement!” – Jim Henry, AIA, NCARB, Senior Vice President

Alice Wainwright at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center

“I have worked with and worked for Alice for several years.  She is the mentor and friend who encouraged me to complete my doctorate and to follow my passion for helping others with transition and change.  She has dedicated her life to healthcare – as a front-line nurse, nurse leader, healthcare executive, and consultant to healthcare leaders.  I’ve learned so much about healthcare processes and operations from her, yet feel I’ve only tapped a tiny bit of her knowledge.  Our team will miss her wisdom dearly, but she has prepared us well to continue serving our clients with professionalism and grace.” – Dr. Velma Jackman, DSL, CPHIMS, LEAN GB, LEED, Associate Vice President

“In all the years that I have worked with Alice, it has been off and on since she came to CRTKL, she has provided me a great sounding board to me professionally and personally.  We would work on the same projects and clients, but different aspects and she would always provide great insight to what was truly happening behind the scenes.  I truly appreciated working with and around her.  She will be greatly missed.” – Irene Bickell, Vice President OneEQ

Alice Wainwright at Eden Medical Center

“Alice’s accomplishments during her tenure at CRTKL are significant, as she developed a service line from scratch and built a nationally recognized team. Her team has supported us on a few projects– most notably transition planning for the Adventist White Oak Medical Center. Her leadership will be missed and I wish her well.” – Ray Brower, AIA, NCARB, Vice President