Staff

Linda Bannister

Office Assistant, undergraduate semester in dialogue

Linda Bannister is the Office Assistant for the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue and Office of the Academic Director. From meeting and greeting Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue students, to organizing their reading material, Linda keeps all aspects of the office in good working order and brings a friendliness to all of her work and interactions. On the weekend, Linda loves taking her dog Zena on walks along the beach and enjoys competitive long-distance running.

Janet Moore

Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue

Janet Moore is an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue where she teaches in the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue Program. She has imagined, designed and facilitated courses that focus on community engagement, resilience, lifestyle activism, food systems, group process and urban sustainability at UBC, SFU and the Great Northern Way Campus (a collaboration of UBC, SFU, BCIT and Emily Carr). Janet is currently the University Teaching Fellow for the new SFU Faculty of Environment and a research associate with the SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development.

She has been involved with a number of innovative sustainability education projects in Vancouver including university engagement on sustainability curriculum at UBC where she completed her doctoral dissertation Recreating the University from within: Sustainability and Transformation in Higher Education in the Department of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education. Janet also worked closely with The Learning City Project – an inter-institutional project working towards integrating real world issues in to the university classroom. Janet spent 4 years as the Provincial Leader of the BC Working Group and Network on Sustainability Education a group that is now the UN Regional Centre for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development – British Columbia.

Her research interests include long-term research and evaluation of transdisciplinary higher education, transformative learning, participatory action research, sustainability education and organizational change in higher education.

Janet is passionate about teaching and learning, facilitating dialogue and participatory processes. She keeps busy raising two kids and dreaming of life as a social entrepreneur/urban farmer.

Blog: http://janetmoore.wordpress.com

Robin Prest

Program Analyst, Centre for Dialogue

Robin Prest is a program analyst with the SFU Centre for Dialogue. With an interdisciplinary background in project management, organizational change, educational technology, and stakeholder engagement, he supports both academic and public programming for the centre. Robin's experience includes leading provincial initiatives in the health education sector as a project management consultant, as well as volunteering overseas to establish educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth. An alumni from the fall 2005 Semester in Dialogue, Robin is passionate about dialogue as a medium to advance public discourse on important policy issues.

Brenda Tang

Administrative Coordinator, centre for dialogue

Brenda Tang started her work with the Centre for Dialogue in 2004 with Dialogue Programs. After a brief stint working in real estate marketing, Brenda returned to the Centre working under the Academic Director managing department and project budgets, marketing and website updates, event planning and logistics as well as all aspects of administration. Brenda has been employed in numerous departments within SFU and also has a background of working in the downtown eastside, marketing for the non-profit arts and teaching English in Guangzhou, China. She holds a BA in Communications from SFU.

Mark Winston

Academic Director and fellow, Centre for Dialogue

Mark L. Winston has had a distinguished career researching, teaching, writing and commenting on bees and agriculture, environmental issues, and science policy. More recently, he has utilized dialogue in classrooms, corporations, non-profit organizations, government, and community settings to develop leadership and communication skills, conduct strategic planning, inspire organizational change, and thoughtfully engage public audiences with controversial issues. Winston's work has appeared in numerous books, commentary columns for the Vancouver Sun, The New York Times, The Sciences, Orion magazine, and frequently on CBC radio and television and National Public Radio. His research, communication, and dialogue achievements have been recognized by many awards, including the Manning Award for Innovation, Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy, British Columbia Gold Medal in Science and Engineering, Academic of the Year, Eve Savory Award for Science Communication, Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion, a prestigious Killam Fellowship from the Canada Council, and election as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada. He currently is Academic Director of Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and a Professor of Biological Sciences.