Trends towards global challenges are worsening, including climate change, geopolitics, socioeconomic struggles and more. These factors are undermining the resilience and long-term viability of global systems, as many intersect. Responding to the need for profound systems change is of growing urgency, and reconciliation is not a parallel concern but a foundational component of this change. Addressing global challenges requires confronting historical and ongoing injustices that continue to shape power, knowledge production, and decision-making. Focusing on reconciliation and decolonizing in research and education is essential. Without a commitment to reconciliation, our attempts for collective wellbeing through systems transformation risk reproducing the very inequities, power imbalances, and structural harms we seek to address. 

The Bridge Lab exists to respond to human and planetary wellbeing and was born out of a shared interest in mentorship, community-based research, and outreach. We bring people together to co-create knowledge, foster respectful collaboration, and support more just, resilient, and inclusive systems. Students, staff, alumni, and community partners form a dynamic scholarly community, engage in real-world research, and connect across disciplines. Interdisciplinary faculty and professionals collaborate locally and globally with communities to drive practical, meaningful change.