Who is involved?
Centre for Good Relation’s (CfGR) work is managed by a small team of Directors, and is supported by members of an Advisory Panel. Our work is delivered by a range of practitioners and experienced mediators with backgrounds in the public sector, voluntary organisations and private business.
Staff
Sam Tedcastle,
Director and Senior Practitioner
Sam is a mediator and facilitator with over twenty-five years’ experience of dialogue facilitation and conflict resolution work. She worked with Mediation Northern Ireland as their Field Manager in England to develop the practice of civic mediation, sharing learning between NI and England on applying civic mediation processes to issues such as race relations, violent gangs and migration. In 2006 Sam was a Commissioner on the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, which informed national UK Policy on cohesion and immigration matters.
More recently Sam returned to her roots to continue to develop civic mediation practice in Scotland and over the last decade has worked on building relations around environmental issues e.g. applying mediative and stakeholder engagement processes with the fishing industry, governments and eNGOs to build transnational, cross-sectoral partnerships in the Celtic Seas, and with the Scottish Deer Sector on their Finding the Common Ground Project. Sam has also worked on developing the role of mediative interventions for marches, parades, protests and demonstrations. One example of this was the Keeping Our Cool initiative at COP 26.
Abdul Rahim,
Director and Senior Practitioner
Abdul is a mediator and facilitator with over eighteen years’ experience in the design, development and facilitation of complex multi-party, multi-issue dialogue processes within and between the public, private and third sector, and communities.
He has worked across England and more recently in Scotland using civic mediation processes to build understanding and relationships in contexts where long-standing racial and cultural tensions are evident. He has experience of international conflicts, working with survivors of the Tsunami Disaster in Sri Lanka, and with marginalised Roma communities in Slovenia. Abdul is a qualified trainer in civic mediation and peace-building methodologies.
Patricia Cheney,
Project Officer and Practitioner
Patricia joined Centre for Good Relations as a volunteer mediator in 2021 at COP26. She continued to support CfGR as an associate practitioner, joining the team full time in summer 2025.
Patricia’s academic focus was in the relationship between identities and political systems, looking at how race, religion, and culture shape ‘peace’. She moved to Scotland from Florida to earn a MLitt in Peacebuilding and Mediation, and accreditation in mediation in 2021. Her interest in civic mediation stems from her education and previous work looking at how systems can be reshaped to support the needs of citizens – in particular, how empowering the voices of people living in existing structures and creating bridges for communication can help build more resilient societies.
Liam Pritchard,
Practitioner
Liam has been with Centre for Good Relations since 2023, developing his civic mediation skills alongside experienced mediators.
He has been working particularly on the marine dialogue project (Making Waves), as well as supporting CfGR’s work in other areas, such as the Common Ground Forum. He has a PhD in Hispanic and Latin American Studies, and, with a background in History and International Relations, has a deep interest in understanding conflict and its resolution. Liam is also passionate about nature and marine life, having grown up on the Moray Coast.
Associate Practitioners
Alun Thomas, Associate Practitioner
Alun is an experienced legal professional with a demonstrated history of success in mediation and dispute resolution. During his forty-four years of service with Anderson Strathern, he founded the successful Employment Unit and led high-performing teams in both Employment and Education law to deliver exceptional client outcomes.
For nine years Alun served as Board Member and, latterly, Chair of Scottish Mediation, underscoring his dedication to fostering constructive dialogue and collaboration across conflicts and disputes in all areas of Scottish society including Civic Mediation and Peer Mediation. He loves helping young primary school students to become peer mediators in their playgrounds.
Alun has worked with Centre for Good Relations since their work in Glasgow on Cop26 and has played a part in their Deer Management, Making Waves and Parades and Protests programmes as well as contributing to a number of training sessions.
Naomi Head, Associate Practitioner
Naomi has longstanding interests in mediation, communication, conflict, and forms of non-violence. Naomi is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Glasgow where her research and teaching focuses on narratives of conflict, the politics of empathy and emotions in war and conflict, and conflict transformation. She has undertaken research on conflicts in the Balkans, Israel-Palestine, the Iranian nuclear negotiations, and the coalition wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has provided expertise on empathy and conflict to a variety of UK peacebuilding and community organisations.
Naomi has undertaken mediation training with Responding to Conflict, the International Peace and Development Training Centre, the Scottish Community Mediation Centre, and Centre for Good Relations.
Naomi first volunteered with CfGR at COP 26 in Glasgow and has been an Associate Practitioner since 2022.
Alan Hobbett, Associate Practitioner
Alan is professionally qualified in Town Planning and Social Housing and has a background in community led development, management, and financing of social housing and other community owned assets. He has held a range of senior positions within the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors.
Alan’s experience covers a wide range of activities including the development of Scotland’s largest shared premises project for the charitable sector and the UK’s first community owned wind farm. He has delivered innovative housing developments including the first modular social housing developments in Scotland and the largest scale application of PV (photo voltaics) within the Scottish social housing sector. He has financed, developed and managed a broad range of community owned assets including housing, renewable energy projects, office accommodation, an island quarry, retail and café premises.
In addition to his professional experience, Alan has volunteered and held a number of senior positions with community trusts and energy charities.
David Nasseri, Associate Practitioner
David is from Fair Oaks, California. During his childhood, he spent a good amount of time in nature exploring the American River Watershed which ran adjacent to his family home. David graduated with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics and worked as a Public Service Aide with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).
Seven years ago, he moved to Edinburgh, and began working with CfGR while completing an MSc. During this time, David has contributed to a number of civic mediation and facilitation projects, including the following: Single Use Plastics – Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland Consultation; Open Government Pioneers Project UN Sustainable Development Goals; Dialogue on the impact of marches and parades in Glasgow; and the Keeping our Cool initiative – COP 26. David is a lecturer at SRUC and supports with CfGR’s work around protests, demonstrations, protests, and parades.
Matthew Bittle, Associate Practitioner
Matthew is a mediator with CfGR’s Protest and Demonstrations work, with a particular focus on conflicts around asylum and migration. His interests lie in how civic mediation can be used as a tool to build bridges with communities experiencing deep disagreement and social friction.
Before joining as an Associate Practitioner, Matthew earned an LLB from University College London, where he specialised in international justice reform and peacebuilding, later becoming an Accredited Mediator. He has previously worked across a variety of sectors, from human rights NGOs operating in conflict zones, to international law firms, and AI regulation in government. In all this work he is led by a desire to work towards meaningful justice.
Mia Luk, Associate Practitioner
Mia’s background is in environmental studies, with an MSc in Environment, Culture and Society. She first became involved with the Centre for Good Relations while completing her MSc dissertation, which evaluated a civic mediation project focused on marine management conflict in Scotland. Since then, she has worked as an Associate Practitioner, contributing to projects relating to marine governance as well as those addressing protests and demonstrations.
Mia has a particular interest in the social dimensions of environmental issues, especially the relationships between communities, governance, and the natural environment. Her work focuses on supporting constructive dialogue in complex contexts, with a particular interest in understanding diverse perspectives and how more collaborative approaches can emerge to shared challenges.
