Executive Office
Lisa Washington, CAE
Executive Director/CEO
Lisa still has a reminder of the first three organizational goals she set in 2004, when she came to DBIA as its Vice President of Education & Conferences Education Director, prominently displayed in her office. She blasted through those goals in her first year and hasn’t looked back since. Since becoming DBIA’s Executive Director/CEO in 2009, the organization has seen record growth in its education and certification programs. Membership among Owners, practitioners and young professionals continues to grow and the Design-Build Institute of America has earned the reputation as the nation’s #1 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 (CAE) credential, a bachelor’s degree 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 (ENR’s) Top 25 Newsmakers of the Year. And in 2023, she was inducted as a member of the National Academy of Construction (NAC).
But it’s not all work and no play. Lisa also loves to cook, hang out with her son and daughter who both also happen to work in the association arena, and has been known to spend as many hours volunteering in a week as she does working at her “paying job.”