Chandra Larsen uses the power of art and creativity to ignite transformative experiences for people and organizations. For over 20 years, she has worked with people committed to tackling pervasive social issues resulting from systems of oppression and violence. She specializes in facilitating people and groups with visualizing bold strategies for a just society, personal and collective liberation, and nourishing thriving ecosystems.
Drawing from early years of working with children and youth in alternative learning environments, Chandra has worked with many layers of social ecosystems – from local organizations to federal government agencies. She founded Visualizing Change in 2017 to help individuals and organizations explore personal and collective strategies for transforming toxic beliefs, behaviors, and structures rooted in white supremacy and patriarchy as it plays out and is reinforced within dominant culture. Chandra and her collaborators at Visualizing Change facilitate environments that enable changemakers to visualize innovative solutions to problems and experiment with doable actions with enduring results.
Chandra specializes in working with groups to design learning and action spaces that disrupt habits and barriers and tap into deep creativity. She utilizes a multi-dimensional approach in her facilitation, incorporating experiences that draw upon Liberating Structures, Human Centered Design, Graphic Facilitation, and Forward Stance. Chandra is known for her ability to synthesize information and concepts in visuals that cultivate understanding and alignment.
Chandra first partnered with the team at Change Elemental in 2017 to conduct a research project on behalf of the Ford Foundation to learn more about how emerging social justice groups and intermediaries function within the nonprofit industrial complex. In 2019, she joined the team to co-design and facilitate the Intermediary Design Lab in a 9-month experimental process to generate and test innovative ideas for strengthening equitable practices within their organizations.