Cynthia Rayner

Systems story initiative leader

Cynthia Rayner is a researcher, practitioner, writer and lecturer. Cynthia’s work in social change began when, as a recovering management consultant, she joined the LGT Impact Fellowship, which brought her to South Africa for over a decade. She has recently relocated back to the US with her family and is experiencing the liminality of being a foreigner in her own country.

Most recently, Cynthia served as facilitator & curriculum designer for the DGMT Fellowship for Organisational Innovation in Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to that, Cynthia served in several organizations, including program director for Generation Ubuntu, an afterschool program educating children in Cape Town; strategy consultant for mothers2mothers, an African social enterprise employing women to guide other women to good health; and the co-founder of the Starfish Greathearts Foundation USA, a fundraising entity supporting children and families in South Africa.

Cynthia is affiliated with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation as an adjunct lecturer & senior researcher. She is also a PhD student at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business studying collective approaches to systems change.

Cynthia's passion is finding "stories from the edge" that reveal the power of people in collectives. She recently co-authored a book, The Systems Work of Social Change, with Dr. Francois Bonnici. The book was published by Oxford University Press in September 2021.

Cynthia also enjoys investing in small businesses that act as communities for people to achieve their personal potential. She and her sister, Erica Whalen, are the co-owners of Mang’Oh Yoga, a yoga studio in New York City which is home to a vibrant community of teachers, students and staff.

Cynthia began her career working in the corporate sector as a management consultant. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University and an MBA from INSEAD