The Guelph Lab is a joint initiative of the City of Guelph and the University of Guelph.
The Guelph Lab offers the City, University and community an effective way to come together, using research, collaboration and experimentation to find promising solutions to the shared challenges we face.
About Us
How we Work
We seek to address root causes and work hard to get at sustainable resolutions.
We work with a range of stakeholders – our projects can involve university students and faculty, city staff, skilled community practitioners, people with lived experience of the challenges we're working to address, and those who face barriers to participation.
We – and everyone we work with – learn as we go through the projects and take lessons from their outcomes.
We are transparent. What we do, how we do it and the results of our efforts are shared with the public and our peers.
We work locally, but draw from and contribute to national and international knowledge and experience.
What We've Done
We have worked on a number of challenges since the Guelph Lab’s inception.
We’ve helped reduce waste water in the city, sped the growth of a business aimed at reducing food waste and addressing food insecurity, taken on student food insecurity and developed a creative approach to complex city procurement initiatives.
OUR TEAM
Elizabeth Jackson
Co-Director
As Co-Director of the Guelph Lab, Elizabeth shares responsibility for managing aspects of budgeting, staffing, communications, strategic planning, as well as engaging the community, staff and researchers in identifying relevant community needs.
In addition, Elizabeth is Director of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph, where she provides leadership and strategic direction to the Institute and guides staff members in the development and implementation of all programs. She builds on her research and teaching expertise in community engaged scholarship, practice-based research, and interdisciplinary approaches to social justice to facilitate mutually beneficial community-university partnerships and foster meaningful engagement among faculty, students and community.
Jodie Sales
Co-Director
As Co-Director of the Guelph Lab, Jodie shares responsibility for managing aspects of budgeting, staffing, communications, strategic planning, as well as engaging the community, staff and researchers in identifying relevant community needs.
In addition, Jodie is currently the General Manager of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Relations at the City of Guelph. Jodie has more than 15 years of experience leading communications, strategy, community engagement & government relations at the local and federal levels of government and within the highly regulated financial services industry. Her work has focused on projects and innovations that drive future readiness both inside and outside of organizations (strategic planning and implementation, stakeholder relations, employee engagement, and strategic communications).
Sam Laban
Facilitator
Sam is in charge of the day-to-day management of the Guelph Lab. He is responsible for developing and managing projects, designing and facilitating workshops, developing partnerships, and brokering research/scholarly work.
He works with City of Guelph staff, University staff, faculty and students, as well as with citizens of all stripes (businesses, community organizations and groups, individuals) to develop promising solutions to pressing challenges facing the region.