EST 2023

About us.

We may not have all the answers, but we have the audacity to ask better questions — together.

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01 - ABOUT

A think-and-do lab addressing
complex global challenges.

The Audacity Lab grew out of work originally launched through Up With Africa, a community-led program exploring connection, identity, and development. That spirit of experimentation lives at the core of everything we do.

We believe today's most pressing challenges are too complex for linear solutions. They require collaboration, humility, the willingness to learn in public — and the courage to change course when what you're doing stops working.

We work alongside communities, researchers, and partners to test ideas, learn from what we find, and grow solutions that reflect the realities of the people they serve. Some experiments become long-term programs. Others teach us something critical. All of them move the work forward.

02 - OUR VALUES

We're guided by values that live through practice, not just words.

Each principle is a verb — an act of participation in the unfolding system of change. They are how we stay grounded in movement, humility, and creativity.

PRINCIPLE - 001

Up with Africa

Complex challenges require collective intelligence. The most resilient solutions emerge from genuine collaboration across difference — no single perspective holds the whole truth.

PRINCIPLE - 002

Partnering with Synchronicity

We pay attention to timing, alignment, and emergence. Rather than forcing outcomes, we cultivate the conditions for ideas to unfold naturally — like a murmuration finding its shape.

PRINCIPLE - 003

Expertise Lies with Local Actors

Communities hold deep knowledge about their own lives. We enter as learners, not experts. Real, lasting change comes from the ground up — rooted in place, trust, and relationship.

PRINCIPLE - 003

Expertise Lies with Local Actors

Communities hold deep knowledge about their own lives. We enter as learners, not experts. Real, lasting change comes from the ground up — rooted in place, trust, and relationship.

PRINCIPLE - 002

Partnering with Synchronicity

We pay attention to timing, alignment, and emergence. Rather than forcing outcomes, we cultivate the conditions for ideas to unfold naturally — like a murmuration finding its shape.

PRINCIPLE - 001

Better Together

Complex challenges require collective intelligence. The most resilient solutions emerge from genuine collaboration across difference — no single perspective holds the whole truth.

PRINCIPLE — 001

Better Together

Complex challenges require collective intelligence. The most resilient solutions emerge from genuine collaboration across difference — no single perspective holds the whole truth.

PRINCIPLE — 002

Partnering with Synchronicity

We pay attention to timing, alignment, and emergence. Rather than forcing outcomes, we cultivate the conditions for ideas to unfold naturally — like a murmuration finding its shape.

PRINCIPLE — 003

Expertise Lies with Local Actors

Communities hold deep knowledge about their own lives. We enter as learners, not experts. Real, lasting change comes from the ground up — rooted in place, trust, and relationship.

DESIGN & OPERATING PRINCIPLES

Celebrate
relationship

Reside in
curiosity

Adapt to
emergence

Foster
genius

Track the
universe

03 - THE TEAM

Meet the team behind the work.

Every person at The Audacity Lab arrived here by following something — a question, a calling, a door they didn't expect to open. These are our stories.

CO-FOUNDER & BOARD CHAIR

Steve Dobo

Steve was drawn to co-found the Audacity Lab by a desire to make a difference in the world. After turning 60, he went away for a few days and thought about what he had not gotten to in my work life yet. He came up with the issues of refugees and the forced mass migration of people, conservation of endangered species and education in the Global South. Steve did a scan of the world, and discovered that one place these three issues intersect is in East Africa, where DRC Congo, Rwanda and Uganda come together. He began reading books and talking to colleagues who had worked in the region and started to have a grasp on some of the history and issues of East Africa. In 2018, Steve and Tamra Arp co-created the first version of the organization called Up with Africa and began working in the region. In 2023, they created the umbrella organization The Audacity Lab to encompass the work of Up with Africa, and expand out to the rest of the world and the forty instances of The Audacity Lab.

CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

Tamra Arp

As Managing Director at The Audacity Lab, Tamra spends a lot of her time in the space between people, systems, and emerging ideas. She helps create the structure that allows the team, partnerships, and programs to move with clarity, care, and integrity. There's a longer story behind how she got here, but the throughline has always been curiosity. Along the way, she has worked across aviation, logistics, overseas contracting, education, and nonprofit operations. Those experiences taught her how to stay steady in complex environments, build before the playbook exists, and connect ideas across sectors. At The Audacity Lab, she helps steward the Up with Africa initiative, supports organizational operations, and strengthens the relationships and systems that make the work possible. She is often drawn to the space between vision and execution: helping translate big ideas into thoughtful plans, sustainable rhythms, and genuine collaboration. If it had to be summed up, it comes down to this: doing good work that is worthy of the communities it is meant to serve.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Glenna Norvelle

Glenna is a seasoned facilitator and strategist with decades of experience guiding teams, boards, and cross-sector groups toward shared purpose, strategic clarity, and aligned action. As the founder of GForce Strategies, she is a long-time leader in the Colorado community with a focus on education and nonprofit service. As Managing Director of The Audacity Lab, she brings her lifelong practice of convening people across difference to an organization asking some of the biggest questions, translating vision into structure and ensuring the work stays grounded and relational. Glenna is known for leading groups with diverse perspectives toward a common vision and practical outcomes, and for designing inclusive community and strategic planning processes. With over 30 years of experience coaching leaders and supporting organizational transformation, and a background as President & CEO of the Colorado Education Initiative and Denver Kids, Inc., Glenna is widely regarded as a trusted facilitator and community leader.

AUDACITY ARCHITECT

Lauren Norvelle

Lauren is an operations strategist, facilitator, and project manager with experience supporting organizations through complex, multi-phase initiatives across the nonprofit, education, and arts sectors. She specializes in designing adaptive systems, guiding multi-stakeholder processes, and coordinating all aspects of project delivery with clarity and care. As Audacity Architect at The Audacity Lab, she brings expertise in building the infrastructure, brand, and operational foundations for a nonprofit reimagining what's possible across education, conservation, and forced migration in East Africa and beyond. Grounded in living systems thinking, her work centers on the belief that what we do at the small scale has the power to transform the whole. Through creative, collaborative, and regenerative approaches, Lauren supports individuals and teams in doing meaningful work that allows more people to thrive together.

CO-FOUNDER & BOARD CHAIR

Steve Dobo

Steve was drawn to co-found the Audacity Lab by a desire to make a difference in the world. After turning 60, he went away for a few days and thought about what he had not gotten to in my work life yet. He came up with the issues of refugees and the forced mass migration of people, conservation of endangered species and education in the Global South. Steve did a scan of the world, and discovered that one place these three issues intersect is in East Africa, where DRC Congo, Rwanda and Uganda come together. He began reading books and talking to colleagues who had worked in the region and started to have a grasp on some of the history and issues of East Africa.

In 2018, Steve and Tamra Arp co-created the first version of the organization called Up with Africa and began working in the region. In 2023, they created the umbrella organization The Audacity Lab to encompass the work of Up with Africa, and expand out to the rest of the world and the forty instances of The Audacity Lab.

CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

Tamra Arp

As Managing Director at The Audacity Lab, Tamra spends a lot of her time in the space between people, systems, and emerging ideas. She helps create the structure that allows the team, partnerships, and programs to move with clarity, care, and integrity.

There's a longer story behind how she got here, but the throughline has always been curiosity. Along the way, she has worked across aviation, logistics, overseas contracting, education, and nonprofit operations. Those experiences taught her how to stay steady in complex environments, build before the playbook exists, and connect ideas across sectors.

At The Audacity Lab, she helps steward the Up with Africa initiative, supports organizational operations, and strengthens the relationships and systems that make the work possible. She is often drawn to the space between vision and execution: helping translate big ideas into thoughtful plans, sustainable rhythms, and genuine collaboration.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Glenna Norvelle

Glenna is a seasoned facilitator and strategist with decades of experience guiding teams, boards, and cross-sector groups toward shared purpose, strategic clarity, and aligned action.

As the founder of GForce Strategies, she is a long-time leader in the Colorado community with a focus on education and nonprofit service. As Managing Director of The Audacity Lab, she brings her lifelong practice of convening people across difference to an organization asking some of the biggest questions, translating vision into structure and ensuring the work stays grounded and relational.

Glenna is known for leading groups with diverse perspectives toward a common vision and practical outcomes, and for designing inclusive community and strategic planning processes. With over 30 years of experience coaching leaders and supporting organizational transformation, and a background as President & CEO of the Colorado Education Initiative and Denver Kids, Inc., Glenna is widely regarded as a trusted facilitator and community leader.

AUDACITY ARCHITECT

Lauren Norvelle

Lauren is an operations strategist, facilitator, and project manager with experience supporting organizations through complex, multi-phase initiatives across the nonprofit, education, and arts sectors. She specializes in designing adaptive systems, guiding multi-stakeholder processes, and coordinating all aspects of project delivery with clarity and care.

As Audacity Architect at The Audacity Lab, she brings expertise in building the infrastructure, brand, and operational foundations for a nonprofit reimagining what's possible across education, conservation, and forced migration in East Africa and beyond.

Grounded in living systems thinking, her work centers on the belief that what we do at the small scale has the power to transform the whole. Through creative, collaborative, and regenerative approaches, Lauren supports individuals and teams in doing meaningful work that allows more people to thrive together.