We are a bridge-building and social impact innovation firm exploring what becomes possible when people, organizations, and communities have greater freedom to bring their experiences, perspectives, identities, and ways of knowing into the spaces they share.The Culture Liberation Lab was created from a belief that culture should never have to be diminished for connection to exist.
Culture was never meant to be contained.
Culture is more than race, ethnicity, or heritage. It is shaped by our histories, communities, beliefs, language, experiences, traditions, identities, and the countless ways we make meaning of the world around us.
Yet the spaces we enter do not always make room for all that we carry. Leaders play a critical role in shaping those spaces through what they model, prioritize, reward, and make possible. Organizations develop norms around what leadership and professionalism look like, whose communication is valued, how decisions are made, which perspectives carry influence, and what people must adapt, translate, or leave behind to participate.
Culture liberation asks a different question: What becomes possible when leaders create the conditions for people to bring the fullness of who they are into the places they work, lead, serve, worship, learn, and build community?
For us, liberation does not mean the absence of difference or disagreement. It means developing leaders and creating organizational and community conditions where difference can exist without becoming a barrier to dignity, belonging, relationship, or participation.
That is the work of the Lab.
The Lab’s Mission, Vision, & Values
Our Vision
We envision a world where organizations, communities, and institutions are equipped to navigate difference, build trust, and work across lines of identity, ideology, and experience to create more just, connected, and thriving communities.
Our Mission
The Culture Liberation Lab helps leaders and organizations build stronger cultures, deeper partnerships, and more meaningful community impact through bridge-building, strategic storytelling, technology, advocacy, and people-centered engagement practices.
Rooted in equity and justice, we transform ideas into actionable strategies that strengthen trust, foster belonging, and create lasting change.
Our Values
Innovation
We challenge convention and create new possibilities for how leaders lead, organizations operate, and communities engage. Our approach combines creativity, technology, learning, and culturally relevant strategies to develop solutions that respond to the realities people and institutions face.
Impact
We believe meaningful impact begins with people and extends into the organizations and communities they influence. We develop leaders who can move ideas into action, help organizations align their practices with their purpose, and support communities in creating change that can be experienced and sustained.
Connection
We believe leadership, organizational effectiveness, and community change all move through relationship. We create opportunities for leaders to navigate difference, organizations to deepen trust and belonging, and communities to build the relationships necessary for collaboration and shared progress.
Meet Our Founder
Joshua J. Rodgers
Founder & Principal Consultant
Joshua Rodgers is a strategist, bridge builder, facilitator, writer, and community engagement practitioner whose work explores the intersection of culture, leadership, community, and social impact.
His career has centered on helping organizations translate ambitious values into practices people can actually experience. His work has included designing national learning experiences, developing community and volunteer engagement strategies, facilitating conversations across difference, advising organizational leaders, building cross-sector partnerships, and creating frameworks that help institutions move from good intentions toward meaningful practice.
Joshua's approach draws from organizational strategy, community and economic development, public administration, advocacy, storytelling, faith, and lived experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Morehouse College, a Master of Public Administration from Arkansas State University, and a Master of Science in Community and Economic Development from Georgia State University.
He founded the Culture Liberation Lab to create a space where those disciplines could meet and where organizations could wrestle honestly with questions of culture, difference, relationship, and impact while developing practical strategies for what comes next.
Our Founder’s Philosophy
"I believe people deserve spaces where they do not have to negotiate away pieces of themselves in order to belong. The Lab exists to help organizations make greater room for culture, difference, curiosity, and connection while building the practices that allow us to move forward together."
Joshua Rodgers, Founder