Our Team
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. 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
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. Lucién is on Faculty at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and has also taught the Relational Culture and Somatics programs at the Relational Center in Los Angeles, the Gestalt International Study Center in Cape Cod, the Relational Institute Australia in Sydney, and at the Esalen institute in Big Sur. His publications include co-authored chapter “Nature Heals” in Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory & Applications (2020), as well as co-authored article “Relational Culture: Beyond Prefigurative Politics” (2021), published in Administrative Theory & Praxis. His experience as a Latinx immigrant deeply informs his work and is rooted in 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. He is also a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, a Nationally Certified Bodyworker, and holds a Masters and a National Diplomate in Acupuncture & East-Asian Medicine.
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.
Board
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.