As a senior director of design and construction for Inova, Roberta Via brings a deep sense of purpose to every project she touches—one grounded not just in engineering precision, but in compassion. With over two decades of experience guiding multimillion-dollar healthcare projects, Roberta is shaping the built environments where life-changing care occurs.
Roberta Via, P.E. | INOVA | Senior Director, Design & Construction
Inova is the leading nonprofit healthcare provider for Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area, offering world-class care to more than 1 million unique patients annually. Its expansive network includes hospitals, urgent care centers, outpatient facilities, and specialized services. In 2025, Inova earned the distinction of Health System of the Year from Press Ganey, recognizing its consistent excellence in clinical care, team engagement, and innovation. As part of Inova’s mission to provide world-class healthcare to each person in every community they serve, regardless of their ability to pay, Roberta Via is helping create the physical spaces where that mission comes to life.
Roberta began her career in healthcare construction and continuously grew her passion for it. Through a shared client while working as a project manager at HITT Contracting, she was drawn to Inova’s vision and the opportunity to contribute to projects with both personal and community impact. She joined the organization in 2013.
She started her career at the Inova Fairfax Campus and was one of the first Inova team members to move into the Inova Center for Personalized Health, a massive renovation across the street from Inova’s flagship Fairfax campus. It included the construction of a new four-story radiology building and a complete overhaul of an existing one, altogether totaling 600,000 square feet of space in the Inova Schar Cancer Center.
“It was my first major project at Inova,” she recalls, “and it taught me how many moving parts go into a healthcare renovation of that scale.”
Among the projects closest to her heart is the Schar Cancer Center, a $315 million facility that consolidated cancer care under one roof. The five-year effort was deeply personal: Roberta’s mother-in-law passed away from cancer during that time.
“Watching her go to multiple appointments across different locations was incredibly hard,” Roberta says. “Being able to give patients one place where they can receive all their care— really hits home.”
Following the Schar project, she helped develop the Inova Mather Proton Therapy Center within the radiology building, further advancing Inova’s oncology services with cutting-edge radiation treatment options. On the Inova Mount Vernon Hospital campus, she, along with her team, oversaw two expansions, including the addition of 20 inpatient beds to the existing behavioral health unit and the construction of a new Critical Illness Recovery unit.
Moving to the Landmark Alexandria redevelopment
Now in her latest and most ambitious role, Roberta, along with the design and construction team, oversees the landmark redevelopment of Inova Alexandria Hospital. At 850,000 square feet, this Eastern Region Project is the most significant single-site capital investment in the organization’s history.
The Alexandria Hospital, Inova’s oldest facility, is being entirely relocated across two new sites, one of them being the former Landmark Mall property and the other in Franconia-Springfield. This new Alexandria Hospital Campus will include four distinct structures: a full-service hospital, a cancer center, a health center, and a multilevel parking garage—all designed to provide seamless, modernized care to the region’s growing population.
“We’re building from the ground up,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to rethink how care is delivered— from the way patients experience care, to how teams collaborate and support one another within a more connected space”
Construction broke ground in the fall of 2024, and the new campus is expected to open in 2028. In the meantime, Roberta, along with her team of managers, leads complex logistics of constructing hospital services, while maintaining strict oversight of schedules and budgets.
“It’s not just about building buildings,” she says. “It’s about creating a healing environment where every element works together to deliver better care and better outcomes.”
Collaboration at every level
One of the defining features of Roberta’s leadership style is her commitment to collaboration. From C-suite executives and clinicians to contractors and equipment vendors, she brings together voices from every level of the organization.
“We’re planners by nature,” she explains. “But real success comes from inclusive planning—engaging the right people early, setting expectations clearly, and creating space for feedback.”
To that end, she synergizes design input from operational leaders, facility presidents, IT experts, and architects. For the new Alexandria Hospital, many of those contributors are women—something Roberta sees as a hopeful sign of change in a traditionally male-dominated field.
“When I graduated with my engineering degree, I was the only woman in my class,” she says. “Now the contractor project executive on site is a woman, our lead architect is a woman—it’s progress.”
That progress extends beyond just representation. Inova’s contractors host outreach events at local high schools and participate in science fairs and career nights to encourage more students, including girls, to explore careers in engineering, design, and construction.
“The more kids see people who look like them in these roles, the more they believe it’s possible,” Roberta says.
A commitment to purpose & people
What motivates Roberta most is the lasting impact her work has on patients and their families. Whether it’s choosing calming color schemes for a behavioral health unit or adding an extra bench in a hallway for someone who needs a moment to rest, she believes the smallest details can make the biggest difference.
“There’s a lot of thought that goes into these buildings,” she says. “And it’s not just functional—it’s emotional. You’re trying to ease someone’s experience during one of the hardest moments in their life.”
That attention to emotional well-being doesn’t stop with patients. As a leader, Roberta sees her role as part construction manager, communicator, and mentor.
“I tell my kids I talk a lot at work,” she laughs. “I’m constantly strategizing and discussing solutions with our design teams, operational leaders, and construction crews. It’s about building relationships, not just buildings.”
Her transition into Inova’s Eastern Region leadership role required her to relocate, and she’s spent the past several weeks meeting new teams, learning the lay of the land, and reinforcing Inova’s values across her growing portfolio.
“It’s taken a great effort to build relationships,” she admits, “but it’s worth it. Because when the culture is strong, the projects are stronger.”
For Roberta, every steel beam, hospital wing, and floor plan represents more than infrastructure—it represents hope, dignity, and care. Her work doesn’t just transform the way buildings look. It transforms the way healthcare feels.
