COAA-VA 2025 Fall Workshop Recap

The COAA-VA Fall 2025 Workshop hosted by the College of William and Mary brought together nearly eighty industry professionals for Owner-focused learning, networking, and an amazing project tour.

The day kicked off with Kevin Lewis, Loudoun County Public Schools, sharing how leading with emotional intelligence can transform teamwork within the construction process.  Rebecca Aarons-Sydnor, Mead & Hunt, embodied over 25 years of green building experience to discuss what’s new in LEED v5 and what Owners need to know about compliance, costs, and opportunities. During William & Mary Integrated Science Center IV project tour led by Jefferson Poole, Goody Clancy, we discussed the challenges of navigating DEB funding, a mid-design pandemic, and an academic restructuring that establishing a new programmatic School of Computing, Data Science & Physics during construction.

💬 Key Takeaways:

✅ Leadership is fundamentally about building relationships, trust, and mastering communication, particularly the power of persuasion and active listening.

✅ Identified new LEED V5 prerequisites and interpreted how the criteria impacts a project design process.  

✅ How a project team celebrates, laughs, and smiles while overcoming constraints and challenges with the successful delivery of William and Mary’s new Integrated Science Center IV.

The success of the event was made possible through the generous sponsorship of Baskervill, Whiting-Turner, Nitsch Engineering, Mosely Architects, and Mead & Hunt. Their support highlights the collaborative efforts of industry partners in facilitating such meaningful events which advance collaboration within the construction Owner’s industry.