Inside the College of Fellows: Wisdom, Wit and What's Next

What do you get when you sit down with two DBIA Fellows who’ve seen it all and still want to make things better? A conversation that’s honest, insightful and just the right amount of blunt. 

Join host Erin Looney as she chats with Darlene Septelka, FDBIA, and Bill Reifsteck, CRIS, FDBIA, about building strong teams, smarter projects and a more connected design-build future.

You can nominate a design-build leader for the 2025 College of Fellows now through July 7. Visit dbia.org/fellows.

Access all our free design-build resources and learn more about Design-Build Done Right® at dbia.org.

DBIA members are shaping the future, one successful collaboration at a time.

Chapters

• 0:00 What is the DBIA College of Fellows?
• 1:55 Contracts, Risks and Blunt Truths with Bill Reifsteck, FDBIA
• 7:20 Reviving the Shadows
• 13:30 Real Talk with Mentees: Career Advice, Guam Moves & Hard Decisions
• 18:45 Building the Next Generation of Leaders
• 21:40 Meet Darlene Septelka, FDBIA: Educator, Advocate, Changemaker
• 25:55 What It Means to Be a DBIA Fellow
• 28:30 Mentoring with Purpose and Learning Across Generations
• 33:00 Supporting Fellows and the Next Chapter
• 36:15 Until Next Time

Transcript

June2025

Tue, Jul 01, 2025 7:40AM • 40:52

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Design-build, DBIA College of Fellows, mentorship, progressive design-build, project delivery, cultural change, teaming, international experience, owner advisor, construction management, interdisciplinary course, public arena, training, legislation, resilience.

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Darlene Septelka, Erin Looney, Bill Reifsteck

Erin Looney  00:00

Aaron, welcome to the design build delivers podcast brought to you by us, CAD and our cons company. I'm Aaron Looney, and this episode is going to be just a little different than usual. Normally, we bring you interviews about design, build, delivery, innovation and best practices. But this time, I wanted to slow things down. It's pretty hot out there in most of the country, so slow is probably welcome for a lot of us. Today we're going to have real conversations more like oral histories. You're about to hear from two members of DBIA College of fellows, our highest honor for designated design, build professionals. This group was established in 2018 to recognize the trailblazers whose leadership, mentorship and impact have helped shape the future of our industry. And right now, Nominations are open, but only through July 7. So if you know someone whose legacy deserves that spotlight, now is the time. Don't drag your feet. Go do it. Dbia.org/fellows, first up, we hear from Bill reiftech, a force in design build, who's helped shape national mentorship programs, led massive projects, and still finds time to explain in plain English why your owner, advisor, RFP, might be wildly off the mark, then we'll hear from Darlene septalka. She's got over 50 years in construction, from nuclear plants in the 70s to Boeing projects across the globe, and now she's newly retired from shaping the future as a professor at the University of Washington. She's got the receipts and she's got the stories. First up, Bill and I went way back to talk, a little early. PDB, so when I was looking for fellows to speak to, my list was all of you, but nobody has time for that, so I had to kind of narrow it down. And what really stood out, and made me reach out to you, was you have been doing PDB since before it actually had a name,

Bill Reifsteck  02:04

and that's kind of interesting, because my wife's grandfather had been doing progressive design build in the 20s and 30s. They did projects where they were selected to build things, and some of the stuff they built during World War Two was all progressive design build because they just had to have it built fast, like ships and munitions plants.

Erin Looney  02:24

That is so interesting that over the years, it's become directly through your help and a few others you didn't do it single handedly, PDB has become a codified thing that's being brought into legislation at the state level, the local level, it's been fought over. It's been rebranded in some states, but it's really interesting to hear you talk about the deep history of it. But let's get to the College of fellows specifically Now, Bill, there's a lot of wisdom and definitely a lot of personality in the DBIA College of fellows. And Nominations are open right now. But sometimes, if you're not familiar with what DBIA fellows do, that question does come up? Do I know someone who is qualified for nomination? So let's talk about that a little. How do you balance being a recognition based group with being a group that continues to do things and what kind of impact is the college trying to make? Right now, there's

Bill Reifsteck  03:21

two schools of thought in the college group that wanted to only be an honorific, and here we are a group of people that get together once a year, and that's it. And then there's the other side, like myself and a few other people that want to do things. The biggest thing where we are out there trying to get started is the mentoring group. And then there's another group that Bill Kent was running that was trying to get a repository of speakers that could go around the country representing the organization that talked the same talk and the same position, because everybody's got their own personal background. Oh, I've done this, I've done that, and we did a little different from him, and it's our own secret sauce. But there are the best practices that have been codified, and we need to talk about those and how those are put together.

Erin Looney  04:13

Now, this might seem like a pivot, but it's connected. I've been working on a piece for the design build delivers blog about how design build shows up in times of crisis, natural disasters, infrastructure failures, that that kind of thing. And being from Florida, I think about projects like the Pensacola Bay Bridge, Sanibel Island. And you know, this is a situation where speed and collaboration really do make a difference. There are a few other projects around the country also in response to degraded infrastructure that's essential to a community, or to damage from natural disasters, I think of two in Tennessee over the Nolichucky River, also something that'll be talked about in that article. But even when design build delivers literally, people sometimes don't trust the process, especially at the local level. Do. Where they're seeing it, they're seeing the past interruptions to their daily lives. So I'm curious how, how do we help the public understand that fast doesn't mean sloppy, and that design build is often the reason these projects can recover quickly and come out stronger. On the other side,

Bill Reifsteck  05:18

did you look at the Interstate in Minneapolis, by any chance? Yes, I did. The design builder came in with an alternate routing that saved time. They didn't have to go after a whole bunch of right away condemnations. That's the big problem. The bridge collapsed. So anybody from St Paul over to Minneapolis, they had to go all the way down and around, and it was a big deal, and they were able to get it back up and operational. And I think somewhere right at about a year, that's a great response thing. I haven't paid attention to what's happening with the Baltimore bridge. Oh,

Erin Looney  05:53

yeah, I've been keeping tabs on the Key Bridge recovery in Baltimore. You know, even though it's still early, they've done a really solid job communicating with the public, telling everybody what's happening, what to expect, why it's going to happen, and that kind of transparency just seems so critical. You can have the best team in the world, but if people don't understand the plan, trust really erodes quickly.

Bill Reifsteck  06:15

Great story was the Tappan Zee Bridge. I had an intern that worked for me that later went on to work for trailer brothers. Her number one thing was to oversee the outreach to all the local TV stations. And it was just when they were starting to have dashboard that you can get onto and any any public could look and what's happening today? Oh, here's what's going to happen in a week. So remember, plan around it. Next Thursday, we're going to have two lanes closed, so maybe go a different direction. And she also happened to be one of those type of people that was really nice to see on camera. So she was one of these and bubbly type that was really good at that. Not to say that she wasn't an outstanding engineer, structural engineer, but she was also could explain the what was happening in the black box to the normal people out there in the real world.

Erin Looney  07:07

And while we're on the topic of connecting, you mentioned the mentorship program earlier, we actually talked to Bill Hasbrouck and Lola present about it in last month's episode of the design build delivers podcast, and you you said that sparked a conversation when you heard it between you and Bill. So tell me more about that. What came up after you listened to the episode, we put

Bill Reifsteck  07:28

together a mentorship program. We had a thing on the website. We had 25 to 30 mentee mentor relationships in 2022 when Don horn and I cycled out as Don was the Chairman, and I was the vice chairman, and we cycled out because we had done we'd done our three years. And last fall, when Bill had to do the shadow program, Bill just grabbed it by the horns and said, we're going to do this. And they did it. And then Phil called me in January and said, Can you come back and take this over? And I said, Sure, and then we're planning for the fall. The idea is that every student that shows up has somebody that they can shadow.

Erin Looney  08:08

I think it's important, if you all are formalizing this again, for us to support it and say, here are the channels we can use to help spread the word for you that that not only boosts participation and the program's success, but it, of course, helps DBIA too. We've got all these tools, guidance, resources, contracts, but without the people touched, without people showing other people how it all works, in practice, you lose the most important part of design build, which is at its core. Say it with me, the people I

Bill Reifsteck  08:38

show up at the young people's things here in California, or what they next gen is what it's going to be called now. And I show up as often as I can. And it's kind of I'm the creepy old guy that shows up, but I hope I do so to try and tell these guys, you know, everybody, Hey, look, we have this mentorship program. Go online, sign up, see if you can get somebody that'll work with you and these things, and some people are excited about it. Other people call me directly, and that's fine. I have at AECOM, we have a mentorship program. I've got eight people now that are report to me, that are not in my reporting structure. They're my mentees, but they are in different business lines, so I can't mentor a person in my own business line. That's probably as good as it gets. But I got these people, and some of them call me just, how do I fill out my paper? You know, this paperwork. And then some of them are like, you know, they're asking me to move to Guam this year. I really don't want to go to Guam. What do I do?

Erin Looney  09:39

Exactly? And that's the stuff no one really prepares you for. You think of mentorship a lot of times as career ladders and technical advice, but sometimes it's my job. Wants me to move to Guam and my partner's rooted in Colorado. What do I do? And those moments can feel unrelated, but they are completely relevant to the whole picture of what you're doing with your life. Life, they shape our decisions and help us prioritize, and ultimately, that leads to the path we take in our industries, and you only get to those deeper conversations if you've built something meaningful with your mentor and that Trust is everything. I know we keep saying that, but trust is so key.

Bill Reifsteck  10:18

A lot of the questions you just can't ask your peers, and you gotta have, and I hate to use the term safe space, but somebody that you can ask that's not going to judge you, that's going to say, hey, look, here's what I've had in my past. Or have you thought about this? My wife and I, we were living in Indianapolis, and our company said, Hey, we want to send you to New York. You're gonna go work on on Lexington Avenue and midtown. I had kids in junior high and in grade school, and, oh, I didn't want to do that. And so we started looking, and I said no to New York. Luckily, somebody said to me inside the organization, would you take a job in Chicago? And my wife, having grown up in Chicago was like yes, so it allows you to be that. Now some companies, if you say no, you're on the fast track out the door. So you got to be really careful about how that is. I can tell you this company, you better not you better have an exit strategy, because if you say no, you're probably not long term there

Erin Looney  11:20

absolutely and you only know how to navigate those situations, whether it's a relocation offer to Guam or wherever a questionable opportunity, or just gut checking a really big decision or even a small decision. When you have someone you trust who's been there, that's huge. I mean, I've had moments in my own career where I was offered what looked like the dream paid well, sounded impressive, would make me look cool, but I knew deep down, it wasn't the right move, and I didn't always have someone to help me talk through that. That kind of guidance probably would have saved me a lot of stress, and I don't know, maybe one or two dramatic exits

Bill Reifsteck  11:56

well. And same thing I have, and I tell people that there is the School of NFL, I can do anything, not for long. For instance, I got asked to take over a job. Shortly after I went to Chicago, I got asked to take over a job in midtown Manhattan for a short period of time till they found somebody else. They needed somebody in the short run to run it. And I got the call on a Friday afternoon, said, Be there at eight o'clock on Monday morning. And there was no if ands or buts. Well, I can do that for six, seven months,

Erin Looney  12:25

and that's actually a really solid lesson. It is funny to me that this episode is the first time you and I have actually crossed paths. You seem like somebody who's always in the mix, so fortunately or unfortunately for you, you're definitely on my radar now, well,

Bill Reifsteck  12:41

you know, and that's kind of interesting. I like to talk about design build. I do about five or six speaking engagements every year. I like spreading the word about this. I think there's some unique things in our certification program, and I have a different take, because most of the people that teach contracts and risk are lawyers. I'm a non lawyer, and I teach it from the standpoint of, here are the things you need to know and when to call your lawyer. And you don't need to be a lawyer to figure out a lot of this stuff, right? You need to know where the minefields are,

Erin Looney  13:14

just like everything else you've said. That's actually a really great point, and we've been brainstorming some ways to make certification content more engaging, and you've hit on some at the beginnings of some pretty good ideas, like maybe hearing a conversation between someone like you and a lawyer, possibly Robin Thaxton, another DBIA fellow, you know, showing those different perspectives that could help people better understand how to navigate risk without feeling overwhelmed, and That kind of back and forth would be really valuable and a really good way to promote the College of fellows as well. Robin

Bill Reifsteck  13:47

and I used to teach the class together, and you want to talk about a side show that was, I mean, if you know Robin, well, she'll get going and she'll tell her story. Well, my daddy told me, you know, that kind of stuff, all of a sudden her Texas accent will kick in, and she'll get going about that. And then we would be doing something, and she'd say, Well, Bill, you can't do that. And I would say, well, we get it this way, and we go back and forth. And it was kind of like, not quite as bad as Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd. Oh, but it was, it was very similar to that, Bill,

Erin Looney  14:24

you're just making it worse. Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd reference. That means, you know, I'm coming for both of you now to be on the show together, and it was fun. We love doing it. That dynamic would really be gold. And you can, you can always spot someone who lives to connect with an audience. And Robin is definitely one of those people like me. She's never met a group of people she did not want to entertain. I

Bill Reifsteck  14:45

brought her on my team, both her and Jeff and Becky, all three of them are on my LA DWP owners advisor team for progressive design build. What I'm trying to do is set up the right team in the right. Place at the right time to put together a rules and regulations and a program of how to go about doing this. And once we set up everything and get the training done, hopefully it'll run on its own, and the next tier, or next generation of design builders can run it right, and then you can feel good about retiring. That's it. I always laugh as I worked myself out of a job a number of times, because of what I do is I come in and I set a design build organization. I did that at gkK in canon, helped them build their design build organization with perfume. I introduced per fool to DBIA. And, you know, you point per fool in a direction, and he because he's a force of nature, and I loved having him involved in that. And then Jacob Williams, he had passed away long before you came in. He brought the Los Angeles County into design build. I helped them, teach them put together their policies and procedures, did their insurance systems, and got them into a program that they got started, and now they're just doing design build all the time.

Speaker 1  16:06

So you worked yourself right out of a job. That's that's what happens.

Erin Looney  16:11

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Erin Looney  16:47

if Bill is boots and a briefcase, practicality, sharp, efficient, refreshingly direct, then Darlene is the steady boots on the ground. Presence. She brings hard, earned wisdom, deep empathy and a fierce commitment to the next generation that's impossible to ignore. Our interview started with a look at her long, illustrious career. Darlene, you've been doing this for a while. You've worn a lot of hats, some hard some mortarboard. So what has your career looked like? Walk us through. You know, I've

Darlene Septelka  17:17

got 53 years in the industry. I have been with boots on the ground running projects, and I've also been on the education side, and I've gone back and forth. And then I had an opportunity, after I got my master's degree, to go for Cal Poly. And so I took a lead from Boeing and went to Cal Poly. And this was 98 there was a competition now in Reno for design, build for students, and so I was assigned to coach, and that's where I started learning about DBIA. I went, I remember, I went to a session in Arizona, and I was teaching what was called an interdisciplinary course. So to teach students, you know, how that we need to integrate. Part of it for me, I was in industry. Was in the nuclear power industry for many years, and again, that was very segregated. You know, we were all in silos and and then when I joined Boeing, we had our own architectural department. This is back in the 80s, late 80s and into the 90s, we were boring engineers and construction engineers. I was on the construction side as the project manager, and we had our own architectural and because we're a private owner, we would bring in our contractors early because of manufacturing. We can't stop. So if we're doing remodels, or we're doing anything, we need the contractor involved very early on to make any plans and stuff. And then when I started teaching, I'd been so far away from that finger pointing design bid build that it kind of shocked me when I got into education, the silos and when I went off to teach at WSU. And so my whole push then was integration. And why I joined WSU at the time is because I had what was called the interdisciplinary design institute in Spokane, and we construction management was going to be part of this interdisciplinary when we kicked off our year, we had charrettes with the students in construction, worked with the architects, and then I created a graduate design build management back in the early 2000 there was just a few of us that was in the educational realm that was Pushing it so

Erin Looney  19:40

Darlene, what? What drew you to DBIA specifically? Was there like a moment when it just clicked that this was your professional

Darlene Septelka  19:47

home. Sometimes students ask me, which Association Should I join? And I go, pick one that you feel connected with. Don't pick. Come just to have a bunch of initials after your name, you know, PMP, I see him. I'll see him. Pick something that aligns with you professionally. And I said, for me, I chose DBIA. And I said, in focus with that group, why I chose DBIA is because when you go to a conference or you're in a meeting, you're sitting with an interdisciplinary group, the architect, an owner and a builder, and it could be some subcontractors and things like that. None of the other associations are going to be like that. Design Build for me was always you're sitting at the table with the players. You're hearing the voice of the players, and it meant teaming. And that's where my passion has been with DBIA. I saw it in my early career, the finger pointing, the argument, the claims, I went to Boeing, where we had more of a private development partnership, and then I'm going, Well, why can't we do this in the public arena? And so I would go to our Cpar meetings. I did two research projects comparing our state projects to help to legislate for changes for design build in gccm or CM at risk. We call it in our state, gccm, we have a review committee any cities or whatever that wants to choose design, build or CM at risk. If they're not a certified city that have already been approved, they have to take their project to a council and we review it. If they don't have experience, if their previous experience has all been designed, been built, finger pointing. It takes a cultural change. We basically sat on their jury. Are they ready to make the cultural change? And have they brought the right people on board? And so that's why the committee was formed, and it still operates today, but I was one of the first people on that committee. I talked a little

Erin Looney  22:02

with Vince Campanella about that process in one of our podcasts. And I was like, that's really an interesting way to approach it. I think it makes perfect sense you want to make sure, if you're going to promote a project delivery type that the people doing it aren't poop in the bed, not just for the industry itself, but for the communities that are served by these projects,

Darlene Septelka  22:21

that's right, and why it was formed is we didn't want it to get a bad mark. We weren't there to deny projects, even though we might have but we were making sure was the owner ready to take on this different type of culture, which is more of a teaming and partnering approach. It is a interesting topic. You're the only, you're the only state that does that

Erin Looney  22:46

well, if it's working for you, and realistically, when we talk to other regions, western Pacific Region comes up as almost like a beacon for what should be happening at the regional level. So they can complain all they want, but the area of the country is doing something right. Like it or not, it's working,

Darlene Septelka  23:05

yeah, and we didn't want in the public eye failure now, because so many owners now are already adopting it. Is it something that's really needed right now in our state? Is most of the owners that educate it? I can't say that. I haven't been involved with it for a fair amount of years. The purpose was solely is for success. Wasn't it to be failing owners that came in? Well, life

Erin Looney  23:33

is not about being told yes all the time. So you know, like you said, you don't want failure in the public eye. That's going to impact legislation for authority across the country. If you aren't doing some sort of quality control somewhere, you are going to have these bad experiences that we hear about periodically, thankfully, as we could and that's what sticks. People will always remember that one thing that just stunk. If you want to promote something that is new to people or areas of the country looking at success that is sometimes I would call it manufactured success, because it's really not. You're just making sure everyone doing this type of work has the mindset, the culture, the tools, the people, and the understanding that they need to do it well. So somebody over in, say, Florida, isn't going to go they did this in Washington, and it was a nightmare. We're not going to do it. And that's exactly what would happen if this wasn't being managed on some level.

Darlene Septelka  24:29

Since I was part of the early legislation and doing actually some research with data collection and writing reports and reporting to legislation. We were benchmarking, we were watching. We were looking. But when we had the cparf Committee, you know, the subcontractors were sitting at the table, and they were the ones that were very concerned that going to design, build or gccm would be contractors would hand the MEP portion to their buddies, and they said. Out that there wouldn't be fair play. It was great to have those voices, because how do we make sure, if it's success, we want to make sure that we're treating everybody

Erin Looney  25:11

fairly. You're getting a lot of this wonderful background. This is so rich and so interesting. But looking at where that was happening in the early 90s, early 2000s to now. What would you think has changed most about DBIA is role in the industry. Since you started working in design build,

Darlene Septelka  25:30

DBIA has adopted and changed their training according to the needs. The biggest thing was, of course, is a progressive design build, and looking at how, in the early years, the way design build was structured, that fixed price competition, and how much time I was involved in some of those projects, helping some owners in the time frame for that competition, the cost for the design builders going after it, and then having a fixed lump sum, you were starting to set up some friction. And so the progressive design build is been a great way to sort of break those barriers. Be fear, bring the contractor in, the architect on early that's been one of the biggest changes over the years, and I think DBIA is role in that has been extremely important, and it continues to be important of having how do we train owners? Because it's a relatively new process, but it presents some particular issues for owners the old way they were still aligned contractually, but the progressive design build is opening up to a truly, truly team building and teaming approach to getting the best value in not only cost, but quality, schedule and really, really focusing on what the owner needs. That

Erin Looney  27:03

underscores some of the more recent resources and some of the attention we've put on owner based resources, whether it's owner advisor resources, whether it's owner specific, because that is a lot of what's going forward, and then new people who are coming into teams like dedicated VDC leaders and people whose whole thing is I understand how the technology can and will shape and help this project. And you know, I've only been here for two plus years, and that's what I'm seeing a lot of, and the progressive like you mentioned, but it's interesting to go back and see when you were talking about teaming, when you were talking about getting rid of those silos, you had to start there before you could ever tackle what the role of the owner really looks like and the owner advisor. So that's really an interesting progression, and that leads to sort of a one of the things I noticed, you know, you have some experience across a lot of continents, a lot of space, a lot of area. You have this international experience. And, of course, the academic leadership. So how do you think having a global perspective and the academic perspective to go with the practical? How do you think that shaped your perspective

Darlene Septelka  28:11

on design build on an international level? Again, when I worked International, we were a private company with Boeing, and so we would then first look at was design, build, a component within that, you know, a delivery method. And of course, we found that in several of the places. And of course we would look at our projects. If it was a simple office space that totally had to be remodeled for us to take over, then we would use design, build. I remember the one that we used in Istanbul when we were opening our first office in Turkey. And we went with design belt on that project, and it was very successful. In some cases. We didn't do that in Russia, we didn't do that and just because of the contracting structure, what people are used to, so we had to be well aware of what the country, at least back in the years that I was doing, that China does design build. But again, to talk about China is a whole total different topic, because it's state owned contractors and state owned design. Yes, they use EPC a whole lot. They hire like a construction management firm to maybe do the design and then procure it out, but they stay on as the manager. So it's not what we would say. The holistic approach to design build the project I was on in China, it was basically a design build project with a developer who would lease it back to us, and we would pay for the cost of it. You can't own land in China. There's so many other different things. The marketing perspective on airplanes had to be taken into what was our sales. It wasn't as easy as just choosing it. We had. Have to look at a lot of other elements in choosing what the right delivery and that was the right delivery method for that particular project,

Erin Looney  30:07

obviously, DBIA, design, build, Institute of America. We're looking at what happens within the context culturally of the United States, mostly, and to hear you talk about Turkey, Russia, China, three completely different structures of human existence, and it must bring to your work domestically a much more a different lens, where you can say, here's something that does not get in our way here in the United States, or here's something that I never considered until I encountered it in X, Y or Z country. We may want to think about that in our context as well. The International angle of that is just so fascinating. I could ask a million questions about that, but I won't keep you on that topic for the entire interview.

Darlene Septelka  30:51

There's a huge cultural component. I actually did a project in Saudi Arabia, and for another company I was in Vietnam, worked with a developer who is building projects there. What we need to look at so if I go back to domestic as things change, and they're trying to push more sourcing here and more manufacturing here, and thus we have to build a new infrastructure to support that. Some of the particular aspects is that foreign companies are going to be building on our land. In the bigger picture, we need to possibly look at those cultural components of design build. We talk about teaming, but if we truly look at it, some of the changes could be, is foreign money coming in. Gotta understand the culture, the differences in how projects are managed and how projects are

Erin Looney  31:49

developed. We're going to talk now a little bit more about just, I mean, for lack of a better way to say it, you have these powerful moments of resilience in your career. You've made some some changes and some shifts. And one of the things that you mentioned in your email to me earlier today, in fact, and it got me thinking, when you have these early experiences where you make choices like walking away from an employer because it's the right thing to do, or shifting to or from academia, because it's the right thing to do for you. How do you think those experiences shape how you are leading and mentoring other people?

Darlene Septelka  32:30

Today, I was just advising a student and helping a student. He is graduating in construction management that he wants to go work with an electrical subcontractor, but he wants to join the union. Eventually, his goal is he wants to run his own subcontracting company so he knows that he has to learn trade to sort of be successful coaching that particular student is, follow your passion. For me, it's never been my money. I would never gone to academia. To me, it's always been the enjoyment of the work. And that's what I try to tell my students when you're interviewing and you're looking for it, look for the culture of the company you're joining. Is it someplace that you feel that you can fit what are the type of projects they're doing that would be a different type of culture within that company? So I try to encourage younger generation that's going out is to look at what fits them.

Erin Looney  33:37

That's a universal piece of advice. I also teach as a second job. Right now, it used to be what I thought I was going to do, but again, you don't go into academia for money, so especially in communications, where they begrudgingly give you a paycheck, it's almost just insulting for me,

Darlene Septelka  33:55

my love of Construction and Design and Construction design build was to have my boots on the ground and being out there and watching it. And why I enjoyed that so much is because it takes people to build to actually raise this in that energy level is where I liked being, because nothing is built without our craftsmen and our laborers out there, those are the things that mean it doesn't have anything to do with the title. I bounced around because I did stuff that I was passionate and wanted to enjoy. My title would have been a whole lot different when I eventually retired. But it's about the design, build process. It's about working with the team. It's being part of that team that builds it, but it's also seeing how it gets built. It takes a village of people to build something that's what's so much different in design build is, yes, we still have the workers, whether it's design build or design bid build, but it's the camaraderie of that village is what. But you know, it's been so enjoyable for me, and why I promote design build is it's fun to get back to the original question, how do I advise? I tell students to do what they're passionate about. And money is one thing. Title is another thing. But if you're not enjoying yourself, this younger generation that's graduating here right now is a little bit different.

Erin Looney  35:24

Oh, it's incredibly different. They're

Darlene Septelka  35:26

going to be a little bit different of a challenge when they get into the workforce more and more, and how to to manage them, because they're not like the old generation, like me, who you do what you're told and you don't talk back. That part, and they are more into a little bit of freedom, and they don't want to be constrained. They like the diversity, right? And flexibility, flexibility, diversity and things like that. So it'll be interesting over the next 10 years, as they move through the culture. Actually, I showed my students once, I think it was near Women's Day or something. I says, you know, when I entered the industry in 70s, I faced a generational issue, no different than what you're facing. I faced the old, the generation where women stayed home. I relate that to you're another new generation, and you're facing the people like me. So I get it. I understand maybe the challenges and the frustrations you might have because you're at the start of a generation. You know, I'm the boomer, somebody

Erin Looney  36:37

like me, for instance, who's technically on Gen X, but I'm also just on that border of millennial that it was super easy for me to adopt all of the millennial thought processes and perspective on technology, and whereas I have a lot of contemporaries, I mean people who are my age, who post things on Facebook that my grandmother wouldn't post, because even she knows better. I don't have a Facebook anymore, but it's really fascinating to watch how those those generations kind of bridge the gap. You don't want to be defined by your generation, but you can't help it.

Darlene Septelka  37:13

He's the world that created that generation. It's not them, it's the world that they grew up in is totally different than another world. Thus your thoughts and your perceptions are totally different. But this generation is very positive. I think they like the teaming aspect. So I think for the design builders, this is a great generation, because they like the interface they like also, how do we environmentally build and so the future is great. The other thing is, they're very diverse. They're used to working in a classroom that is very diverse in our graduating class here that'll be graduating here in a few weeks. 25% of women,

Erin Looney  37:58

higher than the percentage of women in the industry overall by Yeah,

38:03

it's a good percentage

Erin Looney  38:05

these you don't get to be a DBIA fellow. By coasting through your career, you've certainly made a massive impact, based on a lot of what we've talked about today. So what does being a fellow mean to you personally? What does it mean to you professionally, and how does it fit into the greater scope of your long career?

Darlene Septelka  38:24

To me, it was a recognition for the many hours and time that I spent helping DBIA grow and helping support this teaming environment. And so it happened at the very end, and it's to me, it's sort of a acknowledgement of how I helped shape DBIA and helped shape the industry into being more of a partnering environment. It's not the title. It's not a star next to your name. It's about taking the pride in what you do to promote design, build done right?

Erin Looney  39:07

You know, I started this episode thinking I just highlight some of the wisdom behind DBIA is college of fellows. What I didn't expect, though, maybe I, maybe I should have, was just how human it all felt when I talked to them, these weren't just career stories. They were like stories that just happened to play out on the stage of design build. Darlene and Bill reminded us that leadership in design build doesn't always look like a title or a trophy. Sometimes it looks like flying halfway across the world to shake hands with a field crew or telling a mentee that no, they don't actually have to move to Guam and if you enjoyed these interviews, there's even more from Darlene and from Bill on the design build delivers blog. You'll also find features on fellows like Jeff gagne and Becky Blankenship. This is a great way to get a fuller picture of the people behind the F DBIA designation and the legacy they're helping build for. And hopefully it'll inspire you to look around your network and say, I think I know somebody who deserves this honor. So if you do know somebody who deserves this honor through mentorship, innovation or just playing guts, nominate them now for the College of fellows. By July 7. You can find all the info at dbia.org/fellows and be sure to check back and follow the show. Bonus content from some of these conversations is coming soon, including more international insights, mentoring moments and those little behind the scenes stories that never quite fit into a traditional interview. Design, build delivers is brought to you by us, CAD and archives company. I am Aaron Looney, thank you for listening, and we will see you next time you.