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Interview

Lisa Washington discusses design-build: once considered alternative, it is now mainstream, fueling innovation, delivering collaboration, and elevating outcomes

’ ve been at the Design-Build Institute of America( DBIA) for just over 20 years,” Lisa Washington begins.“ I joined in 2004 as Vice President of Education & Conferences at a time when the organization didn’ t have a robust education program. The design-build sector accounted for less than 20 percent of construction spending, so there wasn’ t a huge audience. DBIA was struggling to figure out how education could play a role in advancing design-build, so I was hired to try and address the problem. I got promoted to Chief Operating Officer about five years later and then when the then CEO retired in 2009, I was promoted to Executive Director / CEO.”

Indeed, the organization has seen record growth in its education and certification programs under Lisa’ s leadership. Membership among owners, practitioners and young professionals continues to grow and DBIA has earned the reputation as the nation’ s number one resource for design-build research, thought leadership, advocacy and training.

Lisa has more than 20 years of association management experience, with a Certified Association Executive credential, bachelor’ s in business administration and a master’ s in nonprofit management from the University of Maryland. In 2012, she was named one of Engineering News-Record’ s Top 25 Newsmakers of the Year and was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2023.

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