The Shame Lab

Who We Are The Shame Lab is a research, training, and consultancy organization based between the University of Exeter and Duke University. We conduct academic research about shame and its effects in professional practice, and we provide consultancy and training in Shame Competence. Our Mission To empower people, strengthen teams, and transform organizations through constructive engagement with shame. Our Vision To create a shame competent world. Our Story The Shame Lab grew out of ongoing collaboration between its founders, Luna Dolezal and Will Bynum, whose individual scholarly work on shame in healthcare coalesced through two major creative projects: The award-winning Nocturnists' Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest podcast series and The Shame Space consortium. Serendipitously, and after beginning their work together, Luna and Will learned of the formal partnership shared by their institutions, and they have been the recipients of two awards from the Duke-Exeter Fund through which they built The Shame Space and its numerous initiatives. Recognizing an opportunity to combine their efforts and expand their work together, Luna and Will founded The Shame Lab in March 2023.