Andra M. Popa Studio

Through the studio, I teach, create murals, toys, and videos for a children’s hospital, as well as publish, and research. This site collects all the studio works together.

Teaching: Health Care Design

I presented ideas on patients and artwork to medical students during a workshop at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, as well as traveled to Nain, Canada for the project Kare Atlas.

Teaching: Health Care Design Course

I created the first course on design and compliance, and it is available online. I am working on a book version with a similar structure, as well as case studies.

Publications

Media

A National Geographic Editor at NatGeoYourShot selected a photo of Antarctica for a story.

Teaching Materials

I created teaching materials for children about to undergo surgery in hospitals.

I also created 3-D printed items, including models of brains for patients, as well as a device to help ease patient foot injuries

Murals for a Children’s Hospital

I was invited to create a mural for a children’s hospital. I wrote short story about a whale for the project and also created a hand painted mural for their playroom telling the story.

Videos for Hospitals

I created videos of Antarctica and Dry Tortugas, Florida, for a children’s hospital.

Podcasts

There are several podcasts wherein I discuss professional responsibility and design.

It was a great honor to discuss compliance + design in a podcast hosted by Lasse Frost and Christian Lykke-Rasmussen in Denmark. They opened by asking me how arctic and antarctic landscapes influence my design. The English language portion begins at 4:04.

Field Work: Antarctica

In Antarctica, I took photos and gathered information for the art and writing projects.

Field Work: Sweden

The project Dreamworld was my focus in my field work in Sweden. Dreamworld is a visual story based on healthcare experiences.

Field Work: Arctic

Several research trips to Norway, particularly Arctic Norway, were incredibly helpful in further understanding the various research topics.

Field Work: Child Life Volunteering

Highlights of this year included obtaining a Child Life Certificate from the University of California, Santa Barbara online, completing 500 hours and five years as a pediatric volunteer, and traveling to Antarctica with National Geographic Expeditions/ Lindblad Expeditions, where I studied geology and wildlife. I also studied 3D printing and created educational toys for a children’s hospital through 3D printing.

Field Work: Iceland

I drove around the entire island just by myself taking photos for the Kare Atlas project. I returned back to Iceland about 17 times and stayed there for a month on one research trip.

Field Work: Design Thinking Bootcamp at Stanford

I attended a design thinking course at Stanford.

Field Work: Summer at University of Oxford

I took coursework through Rewley House at the University of Oxford in England. I was also able to tour a children’s hospital in England and compare their pediatric programs to the hospital where I volunteered in the US.

Field Work: Research

To gather information for the projects, I worked as a Research Assistant in a Neuro-Tumor clinic.

Outreach

The Studio donated the first prints of the NatGeo selected photos to the Health Care Compliance Association for an auction to raise money for a soldier’s prosthetic leg.

The Studio also sponsored a tree at the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago, Illinois.

Forest Cottages

The studio created forest cottage experiences for guests.

Principal Investigator

My interest in professional responsibility and design started when I was helping to create the first research compliance program within a university administrative office. I started a research study as the principal investigator to determine whether a pilot program that was redesigning the administrative tools used to review research were more effective at creating compliance.