Contributors

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Host

Erin Looney

Erin has been many things: journalist, radio DJ, voice actor, coach, professor, academic, consultant, athlete – all have helped her become a conscientious communications strategist who can keep multiple plates spinning and seek innovative ways to move forward. She continues to teach in universities and work with the National Press Club Scholarship Committee to train the next generation of communicators. Erin balances the creative and the strategic and uses the power of story to facilitate understanding, advance missions and elevate changemakers. 

Erin moved to D.C. from Florida in 2017 and has enjoyed reconnecting with the outdoors, especially hiking with her Italian greyhound Dusty Lebron James, watching Premier League matches on patios around town and basking in the seats of Nationals Park. She also watches more than her fair share of television and film, with a near-obsessive dedication to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Ted Lasso.

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Kim Wright (retired)

Kim Wright has entered the next chapter of her DBIA career as a happily retired woman. She was the long-time host of Design Build Delivers and served as editorial manager for DBIA prior to transitioning to retirement, a natural move back to her roots as a journalist. After 20+ years as a correspondent, deputy bureau chief and news director, Kim made the shift to nonprofit communications before coming to DBIA in 2016. Not surprisingly, Kim enjoys reading and writing, but a good scary movie every once in a while is a guilty pleasure.


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Fred Yi

Being a good webmaster involves far more than just the technical side of working code and CMS; the magic comes in the creativity and artistry. Here at DBIA, Fred plays his computer like a Stradivarius. He got an art degree from the University of Maryland after studying graphic design, printmaking and animation. At DBIA you can see those skills at work in our videos, website, graphics and podcast.

Music is his passion, and his band, Trajectories, plays in venues around D.C. When he’s not shooting videos of bands or playing in one, he enjoys sci-fi movies. Fred says his superpower would be “creating things out of thin air.” We think he already does just that.

Guests

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Aaron Wagner

Aaron Wagner is a seasoned industry leader with over 20 years of experience in the building lifecycle. Starting in architecture, he developed a passion for the master builder concept, which led him to work with owners, developers, design engineering firms and construction companies, including general contractors and specialty subcontractors. Since joining U.S. CAD in 2014, Aaron has led a team that successfully implemented Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) in over 400 firms worldwide. His expertise focuses on bridging the gap between architecture, engineering and construction, driving collaboration and efficiency through technology.

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Anna Pridmore

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Barbara Wagner

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Brian Skripac

The future is now, and no one knows that better than DBIA’s Director of Virtual Design & Construction, Brian Skripac. Brian has decades of experience leading the virtual design and construction process for diverse projects across the nation. Not only is he a practitioner, with a background in architecture, but he’s also an educator, having shared his BIM and VCD experiences with audiences eager to capture the power of the digital transformation now underway throughout our industry. Brian says design-build and VDC are naturals together and he’s working to help design-build teams embrace innovation and technology to superpower their project collaboration. As an alumni of The Ohio State University, Brian is a huge Buckeye football fan and shares Woody Hayes’ belief that, “Nothing that comes easy in this world is worth a damn.” He enjoys cooking, is a craft beer fan and coaches softball in his free time.



https://dbia.org/person/brian-skripac/

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David Varoli, Esq., DBIA

David Varoli serves as the Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs and General Counsel for the New York City Department of Design and Construction. With over twenty years in the public and private sector, he’s distinguished himself as a leader in the construction space. During  his extensive career in government, he has served as Deputy Director and General Counsel for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and Assistant General Counsel at the New York City Housing Authority.  He also works as an Adjunct Professor at Manhattan College and Fordham University. Mr. Varoli received his B.S. from Fordham University, an LLM from Quinnipiac University and his J.D. from Pace University.

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Geoff Neumayr

Geoffrey W. Neumayr, SE​, DBIA, recently retired as the Chief Development Officer for the San Francisco International Airport Planning, Design & Construction Division. He was responsible for the planning, design and construction of all the airport’s maintenance & capital projects. Geoff has over 30 years in design and construction and has been responsible for the Project Management of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most prestigious projects including the San Francisco International Airport BART Station and the newly completed Terminal 2 project. He is a vocal advocate of the team concept for the design and construction of public infrastructure projects, and is a proponent of the use of Progressive Design Build as implementation approach for integrated project delivery. Geoff serves on the DBIA National Board of Directors



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LaDrena Dansby

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Maret Thatcher

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Mike Werner

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Neetha Puthran

Neetha Puthran serves as Director of the Architecture & Engineering Business Unit at ARKANCE USA. Neetha’s role combines strategy with her passion for business and digital transformation of the AEC industry. Early on, Neetha studied Architecture, Business and Sustainability and used it to focus her early career on project management at an integrated A&E firm focusing on healthcare and laboratory work, then at a GC, managing the design-build scopes. Using her background in multiple project delivery models and passion for digital transformation, Neetha transitioned into an industry solutions SME at Autodesk, where she worked with every side of the OAC triad to further their business goals through the strategic use of technology. Today, she and her team work with strategic clients to realize their business goals through a combination of consultation, education and solution delivery. 

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René Divelbiss

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Richard Thomas

Richard is DBIA’s “fixer.” Since 2009, he’s been traveling the nation helping state legislatures throughout our 14 Regions pass new design-build legislation, expand existing laws and defeat efforts to roll back design-build progress. He’ll tell you the best of part of his job is all the people he meets from coast to coast, but the downside is the partisan politics.

Richard is a Minnesota native, served in the Navy and worked with Ames for 17 years before coming to D.C. He enjoys kayaking, horseback riding and coaching basketball. In fact, one little-known tidbit is that Richard holds the highest winning percentage of any coach in the history of Loudoun County’s Basketball League.

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Tom Foley, PE, CCM, DBIA

Tom Foley currently manages the overall direction of New York City’s Department of Design & Construction (DDC) Public Buildings Division, supported by almost 450 executives, managerial, professional and administrative staff with over 711 active projects, serving 26 client agencies with portfolios valued at over $10 billion dollars. He is responsible for the management of the design and construction of the Public Buildings Capital Program including Civic, Uniform Structures and Project Controls such as Cultural Institutions, Libraries, Public Safety, Health & Human Services within the City’s five (5) Boroughs. Tom has guided DDC towards an integrated design-build project delivery approach with an emphasis on Design-Build Done Right® for New York City’s DB projects.

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