About Relational Uprising
As our name implies, our work is rooted in a radically relational perspective on change work aimed at restoring connection and building capacity to hold the complexity of collaborating on change together. For 15+ years, our work has lived and evolved in relationship with the thousands of participants we’ve worked with. It is intended to cultivate conditions for a flourishing of leadership around local resilience and democratic engagement in response to the challenges of our time.
Our Impact
We are moved to be in relationship with visionary organizations, movements, and communities across fields and geographies that have embraced and integrated our tools and principles into their team cultures.
Meet the Team
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Cedar Landsman
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Cedar is a Relational Organizational Gestalt Practitioner and a heart-centered teacher, organizer, facilitator, and coach who has worked in social change for nearly 25 years. Cedar’s extensive experience in community organizing, food policy, youth development, coaching and consulting formed her approach to relational culture building. Before she co-founded Relational Uprising, she served as Development Director at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, and Director of Outreach and Development at The Relational Center. -
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Lucién Demaris
PROGRAMS DIRECTOR
Lucién Demaris is a somatic educator, coach, and trainer with over two decades of experience in embodied learning, relational leadership, and community transformation. He is a Relational Gestalt Practitioner in Community Engagement and Leadership, a Gestalt Professional Certified Coach (GPCC), and a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (GCFP). As co-founder and co-director of Relational Uprising, he is dedicated to bringing relational culture and relational somatic practices to change-making communities and organizations working for social transformation.
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Mark Fairfield
FACULTY CHAIR
Mark Fairfield, LCSW (Principal, Fairfield & Associates), is an Organizational Consultant & Leadership Coach. Currently, Mark’s work focuses on bringing relational culture practices to change-making institutions devoted to protecting civil and human rights and fighting for climate justice. Mark is typically called into situations where there are challenges in teams and between managers and their direct reports. He frequently works in the Equity & Belonging space, collaborating with other consultants to integrate relational culture as a foundational support for all equity work. -
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Jamie Chen
BOARD MEMBER
Jamie is Head of Operations at Turning Tides Facility, an international giving facility dedicated to supporting the tenure and rights of local communities, small-scale fishers, fish workers, and Indigenous Peoples. She previously worked as a Program Operations Manager at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She has a MS in Organizational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics, specializing in psychological safety in inter-organizational relationships between grantmakers and grantseekers.
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Romy Ruukel
BOARD MEMBER
Romy is Executive Director of Academic Technology & Innovation at Boston University. She plays a pivotal role in transforming classrooms and teaching approaches at BU, and launched several long-standing innovation grant initiatives. Romy holds an M.Ed degree in human development and psychology (Harvard GSE); and MA in humanities and leadership (New College of California). Throughout her career, Romy’s work and research have focused on the sociology of education, universal design for learning, and 20th-century social movements.
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Bob Kolodny
BOARD MEMBER
Bob Kolodny, Ph.D. is an organization development consultant working with a wide array of human systems in the public, non-profit/voluntary and business worlds. His work is guided by two visions: the building of more satisfying and inclusive workplace communities and the creation of more just and democratic ways of governing in the public realm. He currently devotes the bulk of his time to large-scale social movements directly addressing the climate and ecological crisis.
