Meet The Team
RIckman architecture + Design
RAD is a creative, innovative architecture and design social enterprise firm that strives to make the community a better place of living. Michael first started his company on his own managing and designing all projects. In 2019, Michael decided he needed extra hands and added his first Architect, Hunter Sims, and from there Michael began building his team. Michael has been able to accomplish designing and assisting in the construction of Family Homes, Dentistry Offices, Libraries, and Community Housing Facilities and more with the help of his team.
Michael Rickman
Founder and lead architect
Michael Rickman, founder and principal of RAD, spent more than a decade at several Atlanta-based architecture firms before opening his own studio focused on social enterprise. Before starting RAD, Michael’s professional career flourished, yet he was fundamentally unsatisfied. He recognized his work, while good, wasn’t realizing architecture’s potential to bring true value into people’s lives.
In 2016, Michael met Brian Preston, then owner of Lamon Luther, a local woodworking company that employs and trains recovering addicts to become high-end craftsmen. The results of Brian’s experiment—beautiful furniture, a profitable company, and many restored lives—were incredible and inspiring. Brian introduced Michael to the term “social enterprise,” the idea that business can maximize profits while also maximizing benefits to society and the environment.
Michael wondered, “Why can’t architects operate this way? We have the skillset to be a catalyst for good. People matter. Creative problem-solving through architecture and design can serve others.” From this point forward, he longed to leverage his training and skills for sustainable social good. In 2017, Michael launched RAD and has been striving toward its vision of building a better future ever since. Michael graduated from the School of Architecture at Southern Polytechnic State University in 2004 and is a registered Architect with the State of Georgia.
Ashlee Rickman
ADMINISTRATION
RAD is built on the partnership of Michael and his wife, Ashlee. Ashlee maintains the financial side of RAD while also managing the busy Rickman household; homeschooling their three beautiful children, Rhyce, Maci, and Jax; and feeding Michael (perhaps her most demanding vocation). She worked in the financial world while completing her degree in education at the University of West Georgia. After graduating in 2006, she worked in the Paulding County School System as a Special Education teacher until she felt called to be a home educator. She is always smiling, making friends, and sharing RAD’s vision of social enterprise.
RACHEL COOK
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Rachel is the glue to RAD. She maintains all of our office procedures and separates our M&Ms into color coordination per Michael’s request. She is originally from Villa Rica, GA. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Troy University. Over the last 4 years she has moved 4 different times and is ready to stay in one place for a while! In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband Caleb, two sons Eden and Elias, and dog Olive!
TAYLOR PINILLA
ARCHitectural DESIGNER i
Taylor decided to get a jump on the professional realm of architecture while she was in school and stumbled across RAD while searching for firms close to home. She started as an intern at RAD back in 2021, and has since joined the team full time as an Architectural Associate. She obtained her Bachelor’s in Architecture from Kennesaw State University. She strives to make a lasting positive impact in all architectural designs that will inspire the greater good of social impact. She enjoys traveling, spending time with her husky + hubby, and loves to eat!
jenna daniels
architectural intern
Marktavious ZANZABAR
KEY MAN
Marktavious Zanzabar is a key contributor to RAD. He is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He graduated from the el Universidad de Zanzibar y Tu Mama Tambien in 2008 with a degree in Fictitious Architecture and has really done nothing in terms of a professional career since. Or has he done everything? He is the architectural equivalent of Schrodinger’s cat. His favorite color is cornflower blue and he constantly naps at work. When he occasionally rouses from deep REM sleep, he has been known to answer emails in a perfectly executed haiku or not at all. He doesn’t believe in Santa or drink water or have a belly button. But he does always smell like fresh Gorgonzola shoved in a gym sock that’s been slowly heating on an exposed radiator all morning (Hunter’s preferred lunch). We love Marktavious of Zanzibar y tu mama tambien, despite the fact that he is not a person at all. Or is he the most human of us all? He currently resides somewhere in our technology as the copier/fax/server/etc. because the rent was too damn high. Due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we’re never actually sure where he is or how fast he is going. We feel pretty certain he’s wearing a tight black t-shirt, though. Feel free to reach out to him and see if he responds with a masterful haiku: mz@radga.com.
