While expanding its footprint in the southeastern United States, the national architecture and interiors leader Dyer Brown has announced its addition of an experienced, passionate and savvy interior designer to its Atlanta office. According to firm leadership, Ymani Mackey has become an essential team member in a short time, in no small part because of a shared goal: leveraging design to make real-world social impact. 

Mackey joins Dyer Brown in the role of Interior Designer with nearly a decade of valuable professional experience under her belt, including a previous role of in-house designer and project manager for Grady Health System, a network of hospitals and treatment centers serving the Atlanta region that benefited from Mackey’s support in reprogramming and realignment following closures of other area healthcare providers. Prior to that, she designed a range of environments as project manager for another major design firm, including warehouses for major retailers including Home Depot and co-work environments for owner-operators like Serendipity Labs.  

According to associate Maggie Mitchell, IIDA, who leads Dyer Brown’s team in the Southeast, Mackey’s experiences with a wide range of project types — and her insights drawn from working directly for a healthcare provider — make her a valuable addition to the firm’s roster.  

“Ymani is a rock star,” says Mitchell, noting Mackey’s roles with charitable organizations. “She’s all about making a difference, as her past missionary work and current volunteerism affirm. The fact that she has chosen design as her path to making the biggest positive impact possible is not just a boon to Dyer Brown, but a gift to the profession.”  

A Worldly Viewpoint  

A native of the nearby city of Roswell, Ga., Mackey stayed close to home and family for her college education, earning a BFA in interior design from the Art Institute of Atlanta. But she wouldn’t stay close by forever, signing up through her worship community to take on missionary work taking her to Northern India and the Himalayas – an experience that solidified her commitment to making a difference in the world around her. Her project management work for Nelson also expanded her worldview, taking her to sites across the United States. Returning to Atlanta and seeking to make the biggest impact possible, Mackey devotes many of her off-work hours to volunteering with a ministry that supports and feeds unhoused individuals. 

For Dyer Brown, Mackey is currently redesigning and reprogramming for higher education institutions around Atlanta and, in the Northeast, she is helping design and improve a number of all-inclusive eldercare centers. According to Mitchell, Mackey will soon take on challenges in an emerging specialty for Dyer Brown, designing behavioral healthcare environments for teens and adults struggling with addiction and mental health crises.

Mackey is also a mother to two young children who likes to spend time hiking and biking as a family and attending the theater with her husband, especially musicals. She also practices scuba diving, including at a quarry near Atlanta. 

Design Matters 

Mackey speaks with excitement about her work with Dyer Brown and the potential for expanding her leadership roles. Seeking a strong sense of belonging in her next position, she had the chance to meet in-person with the firm’s principals Brent Zeigler AIA, IIDA and Rachel Woodhouse, NCIDQ, and that conversation made clear that Dyer Brown was clearly the right next move for her. 

“We recognized mutually it would be a good fit, with lots of potential upside,” she says. “We talk a lot about how, as the newer of Dyer Brown’s two locations, there is room to further define the culture of Dyer Brown here, and I’m excited to be a part of that process.” 

Adding to that, Mackey is most excited about the potential for making an impact on people’s lives. “With creating and transforming healthcare environments, you’re really in the trenches, and that’s a great feeling,” she says. “Beyond that, I’m discovering the same feeling comes from working on all kinds of spaces, including workplaces and higher education environments. These are all places where people spend a lot of meaningful time, and they need design support to help them enjoy it productively and in good health.” 

Mackey sums it up: “Every space has a measurable impact on the state of mind of the people within it. I’m really fortunate to be contributing to that impact with my Dyer Brown colleagues.