Cedar Landsman, Executive Director
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. Her publications include a contributing article titled “Relational Culture: Beyond Prefigurative Politics” (2021), published in Administrative Theory & Praxis and recognized by the publication as an Outstanding Dialogue Contribution. Cedar holds a Bachelor’s degree in globalization theory and social movement history from Hampshire College, and a Master’s degree with honors in Latin American Studies and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning with a concentration in food policy from UCLA. She was awarded the Dean’s Excellence Award from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in recognition of her academic and activist work.
Lucien Demaris, Programs Director
Lucien, Gestalt and Somatics based teacher, coach and consultant who has worked in the fields of personal transformation and social change for over 25 years in the US and internationally. As a coach, he specializes in relational leadership development and embodied change. Lucién is a Gestalt Professional Certified Coach (GPCC), a Relational Gestalt Practitioner in Community Engagement & Leadership, and is trained in various coaching modalities including the Power of Embodied Transformation, and the Art of Transformational Consulting. He is also an adjunct coach with Abundance Leadership Consulting. He served at The Relational Center co-leading a group development and relational leadership program, and contributed with a Relational Somatics framework. His publications include a contributing chapter in “Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory & Applications” (2019). Lucién is Latinx, and roots his work in the deep ecological values of mutual support and stewardship of the Earth taught to him by Kichwa and Shuar healers from the Andes and the Amazon, who mentored him as an aspiring young anthropologist and holistic healer. Lucién holds a Masters and aNational Diplomate in Acupuncture & East-Asian Medicine. He is also a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, and a Nationally Certified Bodyworker.
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. Mark was a health organizer and social worker during the AIDS crisis in the 1990s in New York City. He was for 10 years the Founding Executive Director of The Relational Center in Los Angeles, a community health and wellness project that combines mental health prevention and care services with community-building and peer advocacy.
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. She has 14+ years in people management, equity-focused programming, budget management, and organizational change in non-profit and philanthropic organizations.
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.
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. Bob has been on the faculty at Columbia University, the New School, the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the Gestalt International Study Center. He has taught at a number of other educational institutions around the world. Bob has been involved with Relational Uprising training and organizational development since its early incubation at The Relational Center, Los Angeles, where he served as a Senior Advisor.