Vice President, Architecture and Planning

Kirsten Waltz joined Johns Hopkins Health System in 2022 as senior director of architecture and planning. She was appointed vice president of architecture and planning in October 2023, overseeing master planning, programming and architectural design for Johns Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Waltz has more than 25 years of architectural experience, including managing designs and leading projects. She worked at Baystate Health, the largest health care organization in western Massachusetts, as the director of facilities planning and design, and at Steffian Bradley Architects, where she managed the London office.

Her interest in health care architecture stems from a genuine desire to improve patient and staff member experiences and better their day-to-day lives, and her project involvement ranges from departmental renovations to new hospitals. Since joining Johns Hopkins, Waltz has worked on numerous research laboratory projects, including the children’s medical and surgical center and the life sciences building.

Waltz earned a master’s degree in architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a bachelor’s degree in interior design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is actively involved with the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) and the Center for Health Design, and is a past president of the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health, where she has direct insight into the latest health care design research across the country.

In addition, Waltz served as one of the tri-chairs of the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities for the 2018 and 2022 Health Care Facilities Guidelines Revisions Committees, and leads the hospital guidelines book for the 2026 cycle. She is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Architects and holds Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification. She is especially interested in using credible research to inform the design process to achieve the best operational and functional outcomes for each project.