My name is Ricardo Rodriguez and I am the Head of Global Digital Marketing for Master Builder Solutions. In the past, I’ve served the AIA as a Strategic Counselor, and I currently hold a seat as the AIA liaison to the AIAS board. I’m also continuously helping and supporting the Christopher Lee Leadership Development program now in Puerto Rico that we launched now in 2022.
Even though I knew of Evelyn and her accomplishments before I met her, I actually met her formerly in 2017, during her leadership of the YAF and the Practice Innovation Lab. I was amongst the 60 professionals that were selected nationally to participate in the event.
And it actually served as kicking off a professional exploration for me in my career where I, for the first time, I think I met people that were as interested in construction tech and as interested in technology around design and design operations as I was. And it opened up the world of possibilities for me to start actually considering transitioning from an traditional architecture position into other fields.
So I credit that program, that event, and all the framework that the YAF and actually Evelyn and her guidance and mentorship with my, current career role and my current exploration and my growth. So I owe a lot of my growth to that.
Evelyn’s the right candidate for AIA National President. She has a proven track record of support of emerging professionals. She’s very dedicated of including diverse voices within our practice of evolving our practice operations to be more technologically savvy, but more importantly to have the frameworks and skills needed to be able to maneuver within dynamic market changes for architectural practices and architectural leaders.
I think Evelyn offers the right kind of balance between. Being knowledgeable, traditional architectural practices and being knowledgeable about the needs and pains that are faced by small architectural practices throughout the nation. But also at the same time, she has a very progressive view on the type of shifts that we have to do, in order to be able to become very effective in our leadership, to be able to combat and be assertive with our skillset in the area of climate action and in the area of inclusiveness. So I fully support her candidacy in this role.