Rusa Fischer

Rusa Fischer is a Restorative Justice Practitioner, Mediator, and Community Organizer with a focus on social technologies, training, collaborative movement-building, and social justice organizing. She is skilled in identifying, recruiting, and developing community activists, RJ practitioners, and mediators; creating innovative approaches to restorative and conflict resolution processes; and conducting oral histories, participant observation, and field research.  Before coming to Restorative Justice, Rusa had been a longtime activist/organizer with time spent in various social justice movements ranging from immigrant rights, LGBTQ, anti-racism, labor, and anti-globalization. She began her restorative journey through field research on the topics of restorative justice, reconciliation, impacts of neoliberalism, and the politics of memory in Argentina, South Africa, Chiapas, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.  She has a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Communications from Antioch College. Rusa is currently focused on helping to build an accessible and inclusive restorative movement in NYC, integrating RJ principles and practices into social justice organizing and the creation of third places.  Rusa joined Morningside in 2021 with the goal of bringing all of her RJ experiences into school communities.  In her spare time, she is a cinephile, pool shark, DJ, and professional dog walker. Originally from Cleveland, she currently resides in Brooklyn.