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We live in a world that demands holistic responses to multiple complex challenges such as pandemics, authoritarianism, social injustice, and climate change. Addressing complex social challenges requires the collaboration of multiple and simultaneous relationships among business, government and nonprofit organizations. New and deep understandings of these intersections also call for integrative forms of knowledge developed through research, practice and direct experience. Importantly, the quality of these connections—including the presence or absence of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect—impacts their ability to engage successfully in multi-level systems change.
This learning community, co-hosted by The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, brings together scholars and change leaders from around the world to advance teaching, research, and practice and build relational capacity for multilevel systems change. Our work is informed by relational coordination, social capital, administrative and organizational theories. We connect members from government, business, and nonprofit sectors to apply models of change, related tools, and empirical research to improve a wide range of organizational and community outcomes.
Building Relational Capacity for Resilient Communities is committed to producing and disseminating research and related tools on the theory, practice, and teaching of relational practices and approaches that support high performance through:
Convening: Meet throughout the year in virtual and in-person formats (RCC Roundtable, RC Cafes, etc.) to share ideas and insights and to develop theory, practice, and teaching as it relates to building relational capacity for resilience.
Community: Cultivate a community that supports an interdisciplinary approach to building resilience to address complex social challenges.
Connect With Us
We welcome students, faculty, researchers and practitioners to join this learning community as a convener, subject matter expert, or partner in understanding and addressing the wicked problems that face communities and organizations. Our partners are interested in:
Studying and sharing how high-quality relationships and communication within and across organizations impact a wide range of outcomes, including worker well-being, quality, and efficiency, and learning and innovation, among others.
Applying the Relational Model of Change and related tools within and across organizations to address wicked challenges and improve outcomes.
Building a supportive community with other change leaders and scholars to share insights from research and practice and gain a better understanding of how the quality of relationships and communication impacts interdependent work and which processes, policies and practices support these relationships.
Dr. Lauren Hajjar specializes in organizational change and relational practices that support high performing teams, organizations and communities. Her research has explored the coordination of inter and intra-organizational work in multiple contexts across the United States and in collaboration with colleagues from around the globe. Her recent research themes include: human resource management, organizational resilience and relational practices that support high performance.
Hajjar is skilled in quantitative and qualitative analysis and uses diverse methodologies to answer research questions, including ethnographic methods such as interviews, focus groups, participant observation and field-based surveys. She has presented her research in papers and symposia at the Annual Meetings of Labor and Employment Relations Association, Academy of Management and other international forums. Recent research has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, National Institute of Corrections and the Sawyer Business School.
Brenda J. Bond-Fortier, PhD is Professor of Public Administration at Suffolk University. Brenda’s work focuses on the structures, processes and functions that influence organizational change and culture, collaboration, and the implementation of public and social policies. Her book, Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department: Innovating to Reform (2020), analyzes organizational change and community relationships as part of an organizational transformation. Having studied and consulted with communities and governments across the US, Brenda is a recognized scholar, research partner and media contributor.
Brenda consults for 21CP Solutions, Inc. where she conducts reviews and advises higher education leaders on campus public safety. Brenda served as an expert for the US Department of Justice, and previously worked at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Program in Criminal Justice Policy & Management. As a practitioner, Brenda was Research Advisor for a regional police chiefs’ association, and Director of Research and Development for a Massachusetts police department. Brenda received a PhD and MA in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in Community Social Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Ninna Meier
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University [email protected]
Ninna Meier studies organization and management of public sector organizations. She has researched public sector organizations since 2009, particularly clinical managerial work in hospitals, coordination practices, and standard in health care work. In her latest project, she researched efforts to create coherency in patient pathways across organizational and professional boundaries in three large hospital wards. She is a qualitative researcher particularly interested in clinical managerial work practices, coherency across boundaries, the role of space, materiality and relational aspects of work, and how to study, analyze, and write about context in health care research.
With Charlotte Wegener, Department of Communication, she is exploring the role of writing in achieving impact and innovation in practice - in what they call the Open Writing project. Please see the latest blog post at the London School of Economics Impact.
Carlos Rufin
Professor of Public Service and International Business, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University [email protected]
Carlos Rufín is Professor of Public Service and International Business at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School. His research examines infrastructure networks and markets, Public-Private Partnerships, regulatory affairs, renewable energy, access to basic services, and sustainable urbanization. He has also worked on these topics as a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development, among many organizations.
In addition to full-time teaching at Suffolk University and previously at Babson College, he is the President of the Institute for International Urban Development, and has been a visiting scholar and guest lecturer at many universities around the world. He is the author of two books and numerous articles in major international journals. Dr. Rufín has a PhD in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as an M.A. degree in Economics from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Princeton University.
Teaching Case: Hajjar, L., Gittell, J.H., Meier, N., Gunn, B. (2022). Breaking down silos to build collaborative systems. Eds. C. Carlson, J.C. Gershenfeld, M. Kriegsman, Heller School Social Impact Case Collection. Brandeis University Press.
In the News:Building resilient communities - one conversation at a time. Suffolk University News, March 13, 2023. Professor Lauren Hajjar has been assisting the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court in St. Louis as it tries to enhance communication and coordination within and across providers.
Conference Proceedings: Gittell, J. H., Sutcliffe, K. M., Vogus, T. J., Ali, H. N., Bhardwaj, A., Dillon, E., Faraj, S., Hajjar, L., Kragen, B., Malas, K., Yang, J., Deng, S., Martinez, M., Pertsch, S. & Weger, L. (2022). Relationships and resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic. In Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings (Vol. 2022, No. 1).
Lauren Hajjar
Brenda J. Bond-Fortier
Ninna Meier 
Carlos Rufin