Grace, former chair of AIA Project Delivery Knowledge Community, is an Owner’s advisor. As a senior project manager at CBRE, she sets out procurement strategies, project delivery blueprints, supports clients’ businesses and operational requirements. She provides customized services from project inception to completion that minimize risks optimizing project outcomes. She is responsible for timely reporting ensuring client goals are achieved. She orchestrates the integration of project delivery systems, multifaceted business functions, and directs project implementation. Her multi-market experiences foster innovation and drive efficiency. Her experience is complemented by a B.S. degree in Architecture, two M.S. degrees – in Construction Administration and in Sustainability Management – both from Columbia University. After working for global architectural firms, she transitioned into the Owner’s side. Her previous roles from “both sides of the fence”, being an Owner and a consultant, cultivated her talents at big picture ideas, executing details, and qualified her the perspectives to purvey strategic master planning. Her broad-based knowledge benefits real estate development, design, construction, capital facility programs, and sustainability management. Grace serves on the PDKC, Urban Land Institute, Association of Medical Facilities Professionals steering committees. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, School of Professional Studies, teaching graduate-level students.

Ms. Jones is an Architect, DBIA Professional, LEED® AP, Green Globes Professional, and Guiding Principles Compliance Professional.  

She is a nationally recognized expert Owner Advisor providing consulting services that include project delivery method selection, acquisition management, and advisory services tailored to state and federal government agencies seeking to utilize design-build. 

Ms. Jones has over 30 years’ experience in the architectural profession, including 20 years of design-build experience. She began her design-build experience as a practitioner delivering projects using the best practices before they were initially memorialized and published by DBIA. She now exclusively serves as an Owner Advisor, where she has worked on projects with a wide range of budgets and complexities.  

A tireless advocate for the implementation of DBIA’s Design-Build Done Right Best Practices, she seeks to educate both owners and design-build teams through her consulting and as a DBIA approved training instructor. Additionally, her service to DBIA National includes serving as Chair of the Owner Advisor committee since 2022 with a commitment that spans until 2027 in that role. She oversaw the update to the 2024 owner advisor primer entitled “The Role of The Owner Advisor in Design-Build” and will oversee the development of a specialty credential for owner advisors in the coming years. 

Andrew Carlson is a registered Architect and a Fellow of the Design-Build Institute of America with over 30 years’ experience. For the last twenty plus years he has worked for the Oklahoma National Guard in Various positions within their facility engineering program overseeing over half a billion dollars in Design-Build Done Right construction. From 2003-2009 he was the Colonel in charge of their engineering program. After retiring from uniformed military service, he works as an Army Civilian and serves as the Branch Chief of their Planning and Construction branch. He is a nationally recognized thought leader in the field of Design-Build project delivery in the public sector.