Associates
The SFU community is mourning the loss of former SFU Chancellor and Dialogue Associate Milton Wong. Please click here for an article from SFU News on his life's achievements and how you can honour Milton's legacy with a donation.
Bergen Amren
Email: bergen@amren.ca
"We can observe that dialogue often emerges when conversing participants let go into the present, listen with compassion and reflect a spacious, non-judging awareness. I am moved by the forces that inspire individuals and communities to cultivate these practices and that continue to infuse our culture and society with the inclusiveness and creativity that dialogue fosters."
Bergen Amren is a consultant for organizations facing the management of change, challenging relationships, difficult communications and other complex issues. He employs coaching, dialogue facilitation and consensus-based approaches to planning, reaching agreements and training. His earlier graduate research work in Sociology focused on the structure of conversation and the use of mediation in family disputes. He has over 25 years experience in facilitating the resolution of public discontent and conducting administrative audits concerning the fairness of the decisions, actions, policies and practices of a wide range of public agencies.
Laurie Anderson
Email: lauriea@sfu.ca
"I like to create learning conditions wherein participants feel safe, included, worthy, resourceful and inspired. In this context, dialogue to me is the glue that binds these conditions together. Dialogue also helps participants suspend disbelief long enough to transcend their positions and assumptions to consider other ways of knowing and being. I like to help participants "go to the balcony", that is, build their capacity to stand back and look at their own and others' views with a sense of compassion, hope and possibility. I also like to make people laugh: I have found it makes space for dialogue to flourish."
Dr. Laurie Anderson is the Executive Director of Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Education. Laurie has been a elementary teacher, principal, District Principal, Director of Curriculum, Associate Superintendent and Interim Superintendent of Schools for the Vancouver Board of Education. Laurie has also been a consultant on education reform for the Ministry of Education, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, a curriculum developer and instructor for Vancouver Community College, a mediation consultant for schools throughout BC, a facilitator of the VSB's Leadership Development Program, and developer and instructor of the Instructor Training Program, a course taken by over 2,000 aspiring teachers of adults over the last 22 years. Laurie has presented at conferences in Canada and the US, taught leadership courses in Hong Kong, Bangkok and various cities in China, provided education reform consultation to educational authorities in Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Hong Kong, and facilitated planning and visioning sessions with various public and private sector organizations in Vancouver. Laurie obtained his BEd, MA and PhD at SFU, served as a Director on the Canadian Bureau of International Education for six years and completed the Certificate Program in Conflict Resolution at the Justice Institute.
Siobhan Ashe
Email: smashe@sfu.ca
"I am interested in dialogue because it provides a place and space for collaborative critical thinking and action to catalyze people's capacities for empathy and social responsibility. I am interested in dialogue because it expands individual thinking by fostering new insights into the power and possibility of society, our institutions and the democratic processes that we share."
Siobhan Ashe is the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue faculty member for the spring 2008 program "Exploring Citizenship in Canada: Individual to Community, from Local to Global". Siobhan's doctoral research in the department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia focuses on sustainable community development planning and local level democratic engagement processes, with particular emphasis on the intersection of community based capacity building models and culturally determined socialization practices. A component of her research interests includes the initiation of and active participation within a range of sustainability initiatives in the Vancouver area. This has included the coordination of collaboration amongst diverse community representatives within the social realm of the GVRD's "Sustainable Region Initiative". In her community facilitation work and as a post-secondary instructor, she engages and continues to be inspired by an array of dialogue processes designed to create opportunities to foster collective imaginations and collaboration.
Joanna Ashworth, Senior Dialogue Associate
Email: jashwort@sfu.ca
Dr. Joanna Ashworth is the former director of Dialogue Programs, at the Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University where she led innovative dialogue-learning projects and programs. For more than 20 years she has worked in the interwoven fields of communication and adult education - in educational planning, community development, and management positions with the United Nations in Latin America, then with Vancouver Community College, the Open Learning Agency, UBC, and Vancity. Seeking new ways to communicate and educate through media has led her to produce documentaries for television, video and audiotape for diverse types of learning needs. Joanna's research interests include innovations in leadership education, dialogue and deliberation as hermeneutics, and uncovering tacit knowledge through reflective practice and narrative. She is the author of numerous publications, including Cultivating Dialogue. Joanna is currently co-directing SFU project Engaging Diaspora in Development: Tapping the Translocal Potential for Change as well as provides leadership to community dialogues on multiculturalism around British Columbia through her work with EmbraceBC.
Herb Barbolet
Email: herb@herbbarbolet.com
"Dialogue is an essential process for individuals and communities - to become resilient, survive and thrive - in the era of chaos that humanity has now entered."
Herb Barbolet is an independent consultant. He is also an Associate with the Dialogue Centre at Simon Fraser University and a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He is a recognized expert in local food systems and sustainability.
Herb has been active in community development for more than 30 years - Working in community planning, energy conservation, citizen participation, cooperative housing, and food and agriculture. He now works in food policy research, projects and programmes: linking food to community economic development, health and safety, environment, social justice, and international development - from the very local to the global. He is one of the leading food activists in North America.
In 1994 Herb founded, and for 10 years was Executive Director of, FarmFolk, CityFolk - an innovative non-profit organization working from local to global and on all aspects of the food system – health, economics, environment, celebration, sustainability and resilience. Participating on the CBC Almanac's Food Panel helped him communicate the need for local food for 13 years.
Herb has a B.A. in Urbanism, a Masters in Community Development, and doctoral studies in Community Development and later in Community Planning and Political Economy. Most relevant to this project, since 2003 he has co-authored: two food assessment studies for provincial health authorities, a guide to food assessments for the Provincial Health Services Authority and a study of "How Food Secure is Vancouver?" for the City of Vancouver. He also co-authored a community gardens manual for the Union of BC Municipalities and Every Bite Counts: Climate Justice and BC's Food System for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. For the City of Vancouver, Herb also led a team completing a Feasibility Study for an Incubator Kitchen in the Save On Meats heritage building. He also co-founded and helped steer Local Food First, a not-for-profit collaborative with a mandate to catalyze the growth of a sustainable local food system in Metro Vancouver through the development of a New City Market, - A food hub for Vancouver.
He is now working with The Vancouver Food Policy Council and Village Vancouver on A Food Energy Descent Action Plan (FED-AP). FED-AP is designed to envision a just, sustainable and resilient food future and back-cast plans to achieve that goal.
Cathy Beehan
Email: actioncanada@actioncanada.ca
"A critical component of leadership is dialogue. Learning, practising and sharing the skills of dialogue bring us closer to excellence in leadership."
Cathy Beehan is Chief Executive Officer of Action Canada, a national fellowship program to build leadership for Canada's future. A former senior federal public service executive, she received the Prime Minister's Outstanding Achievement Award for Public Service Excellence, the highest award for executives in the Government of Canada. Cathy was the first Canadian head of the NAFTA Secretariat and has expertise in NAFTA dispute settlement and negotiations. She is an experienced policy advisor to a senior federal Cabinet Minister and holds degrees in law and the performing arts, graduating with distinction in both.
Sean Blenkinsop
Email: sblenkin@sfu.ca
Sean Blenkinsop is an assistant professor in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. He has a Doctorate in philosophy of education from Harvard and a Masters in experiential education from Minnesota State at Mankato. His interest in the practice of dialogue stretches back a long way and has been influenced by Martin Buber, living in community, and a long background in Outdoor, Environmental, and Experiential Education. Current research interests include relational epistemologies, existentialism, imagination, and ecology as a way of being rather than an object of study.
Michelle Brown
Email: michelle.brown@telus.net
"My study of dialogue meshes with my study of spiritual practice, both of which increasingly focus on being in community.”
Michelle Brown is Senior Consultant, Aboriginal Relations for Transport Canada's Pacific Region. She previously worked for five years as a treaty negotiator for Indian and Northern Affairs. Before that she mediated corporate-environmental conflicts arising from major hydroelectric projects on the Columbia and Nechako rivers. Her academic background is in communications (Red River Community College), conflict analysis (Royal Roads University), and law (University of Victoria). She consults with congregations and other groups on consensus-building decision processes. Her research interests centre on dialogue as a medium for building “intentional community” and for addressing political and interpersonal conflict.
Kevin Chan
Email: kevin_chan@actioncanada.ca
"Good public policy is the result of thoughtful engagement and dialogue."
Kevin is Senior Policy Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition. In June 2009, he was appointed by the Leader to the Government-Opposition Employment Insurance Working Group. Previously, Kevin served for five years in the Privy Council Office, including as Executive Assistant and Director, Office of the Clerk of the Privy Council, and completed a secondment to the Government of Nunavut. Earlier, Kevin was a management consultant at the Monitor Group.
Kevin is the founder of Bouge.ca, and sits on the boards of the Lawrence Centre for Policy and Management and DreamcatcherYukon.ca. He is an associate of the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University, and a Loran Scholar mentor. He has been a contributor to the Globe and Mail and the Ottawa Citizen.
Kevin graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Ivey School of Business, where he was a President Scholar. He also studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music. An Action Canada Fellow, Kevin was awarded the Public Service Award of Excellence, and was selected a member of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.
Nadia Chaney
Email: eternal.flux@gmail.com
Website: www.byanydreamsnecessary.com
"Dialogue is to the community as blood is to the heart; an inter-related reason for being.”
Nadia Chaney has been facilitating rogue dialogue sessions since 2002. She loves the grit and grace of arts based conversation, and isn't afraid to offer opportunities for real concerns to come face-to-face with extravagant possibilities. Nadia works as an arts empowerment facilitator, poet, lyricist and social artist, specializing in human systems installations. She has worked in every school in Vancouver's lower mainland, as far away as Johannesburg South Africa, and as near as her own living room.
David Choi
Email: ceo@royalpacificgroup.ca
"The study of Dialogue asks the question: 'is effective dialogue culturally dependent or are there universal principles of effective dialogue and, if so, what is the relationship between the two?' More than ever before, technology, access and speed of transfer of information shape knowledge and therefore dialogue, but what roles do technology of information and dialogues play in major decision-making and conflict resolution in an age where peace, understanding and development are cherished?"
David Choi is a founding Council Member of SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. He is members of: Senate of the Canadian International Council (CIC), International Board of Governors of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Board of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), International Advisory Board of UBC Institute of Asian Research (UBC-IAR). Mr. Choi is Senior Associate of UBC's Liu Institute for Global Issues (UBC-LIGI), a member of UBC's President's Circle and SFU's President's Club. An entrepreneur, Mr. Choi is Chair and CEO of Royal Pacific Real Estate Group of Companies and Chair of the C.K. Choi Foundation.
Mr. Choi was the recipient of the SFU Chancellor's Award for distinguished community service to British Columbia and Business in Vancouver's "40 under 40" British Columbia's Top Business Achievers Award. He served as Board Members of B.C.'s Children's Hospital Foundation, Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, and Vancouver Chinatown Millennium Gate Society. He was Executive Producer of the film "Canadian Steel, Chinese Grit", a documentary of the Chinese railway workers in Canada and Co-chair of a Canada 2000 Millennium celebration project, which produced a Chronology of Chinese Canadian History in English, French and Chinese. Mr. Choi also served as Vice Chair of SUCCESS (Long Term Planning & Resource Development) and Chair of the Vancouver Economic Development Commission.
Cal Chrustie
Email: cal.chrustie@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Cal Chrustie is a practitioner in the field of negotiations, conflict resolution and management. Cal originally developed a passion for this field as a peacekeeper amidst the height of the civil war in the former-Yugoslavia in the early 1990's. His interest in this field was sparked by his negotiations with kidnappings, prisoners of war, and body exchanges. He returned to Canada after several tours and continued his career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and became very involved in hostage and kidnap negotiations, locally, nationally, and internationally. This included training with the FBI and Scotland Yard. Cal continues his practice in negotiations and conflict resolution in host of diversfied settings including in Canada, the former-Yugoslavia, Israel, Iraq and Africa. His interest is in the field of intractable conflicts, system design and negotiations. He has just recently completed his LLM (Masters of Law) at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in the field of ADR and Conflict. His educational background, coupled with experience dealing with intense conflict, war lords, militia's, extremists etc., has led to his exploration of theory versus practice and where the two overlap. He is a strong advocate of the power of being "genuine" and non-linear approaches as practitioner.
Ann Cowan, Senior Dialogue Associate
Email: cowanbu@sfu.ca
Ann Cowan is the Executive Director of Simon Fraser University Vancouver campus. She joined the University as the Director of Program Information in Continuing Studies in 1977. In 1979 she was the founding director of the Writing and Publishing Program which continues to flourish, and out of which grew the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing directed by co-founder, Professor Rowland Lorimer. When the Centre for Dialogue opened in 2000, she assumed the role of directing the development of programs there, and is still immersed in that project in her role as Executive Director of the SFU Vancouver campus. She was recognized as a Woman of Distinction by the YWCA, Vancouver in the field of education, and is a member of the International Women’s Forum. She is a board member of the DVA, DVBIA and formerly served on the Vancouver Public Library Board.
Kate Dilworth
Email: dilworth@sfu.ca
"I am interested in exploring the potential and challenges of dialogue-based approaches to deal with complex issues related to health and systems of care. What is the effectiveness and role of these approaches in informing public health policy and strengthening stakeholder and particularly interprofessional relations?"
Kate is a registered nurse with 22 years of experience in healthcare and consulting. Kate provides strategic management consulting in service design and delivery to the healthcare, health research, biotech, and academic sectors. Kate has facilitated, coached and worked with numerous interdisciplinary health care teams and individual health professionals to examine their service delivery, implement changes in care delivery models, identify best practices, articulate professional roles and accountabilities and adapt to changes in scope of professional practice.
Her healthcare career has focused on the clinical areas of mental health, addictions, program design, re-design and development, inter agency coordination, policy development, public and professional education and consultation in both acute and community delivery systems. Kate has lectured and consulted to local and international health science students, professionals, government and private businesses in the areas of serious mental illness, chemical dependency, and related management and service design issues. Kate is passionate about the need for innovation to meet the challenges of health care provision and the important role leadership plays in this regard.
Duane Elverum
Email: delverum@telus.net
"As a university educator, I am interested in the idea that personal concerns inevitably have their origins in public policy. Dialogue is a way to explore these complex and difficult issues as students begin to understand the inevitability of a political landscape in their lives. In this way dialogue changes the DNA of the classroom, and reminds us of the university’s original aim; to create and maintain the crucial public sphere."
Duane Elverum is Assistant Professor in Foundation and Design at Emily Carr University, where his teaching and research asks; how is it that the net sum of human imagination manifests itself as an unquestioned reliance on industrial systems and patterns of consumption that knowingly contribute to the ongoing decline of living systems?
As a sustainability educator teaching university students, his work examines the responsibility that universities bear in this problem, and the role they may have in preparing students to participate in a life that promises to be somewhat different than the one we are living now. He proposes in curriculum and research that universities can adapt by creating immersive project-based and collaborative learning models that are trans-disciplinary and oriented toward civil engagement.
He received a degree with honors in architecture from the University of British Columbia for his thesis on Alternative Urban Housing, and for 11 years operated Delve Design Consultants for Built Environments in Vancouver. He taught at the UBC School of Architecture from 1995-2000 supervising the Program for Studies in Design/Build. During that time, he supervised design studies abroad to Berlin and Prague and was a visiting studio critic at the TU in Dresden. In 2004 he curated the exhibition and wrote the monograph for Toward an Architecture of Conscience: The Work of Sandy Hirshen. In spring 2009 he co-taught with Janet Moore in the SFU Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue on the theme of Designing the Future.
He has crossed the Pacific Ocean in a sailboat 5 times.
Derek Evans
Email: derekevans@shaw.ca
Website: www.derekgevans.com
Derek Evans is a writer, teacher, scholar, and activist. His work in peace and human rights spans three decades and five continents. Derek served two terms as Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, and has led more than seventy international delegations conducting human rights investigations or peace negotiations. He was also formerly Executive Director of the Naramata Centre, one of Canada's foremost experiential learning institutes. He is Principal of Evans & Associates, an independent firm providing professional services in the fields of conflict transformation, human rights, governance and strategic development. He was awarded the McGeachy Senior Scholarship for 2005-2006 in recognition of his inter-disciplinary work in the field of reconciliation in post-conflict situations, and he is a core faculty member in the Centre's diploma program in "Dialogue and Negotiation". The author or co-author of some fourteen books, his most recent titles are Before the War (2004) and Dispatches from the Global Village (Copperhouse, 2007).
Éamonn Gill
Email: etgill@shaw.ca
Dr. Éamonn Gill has extensive teaching and facilitation experience at the graduate level. His research and teaching on dialogue focus on what contributes to those moments described as "flow" or engagement. Dr. Gill leads a diverse practice comprised of teaching, organizational consulting, psychologicl assessment, and psychotherapy.
Ginger Gosnell-Myers
Email: gng2@sfu.ca
“I feel that as Aboriginal peoples, we live in a contradictory and constantly changing environment – one that requires equally complex dialogue to carry us forward. In my experience, it is dignified and courageous dialogue that drives positive change thus breaking misconceptions and other barriers.”
Ginger Gosnell-Myers – of Nisga’a and Kwakwak'awakw heritage is passionate about advancing Aboriginal rights and knowledge. Ginger is an Action Canada 2004 Fellow, former Co-Chair to the National Youth Council of the Assembly of First Nations, and is a co-founder of the Centre for Native Policy and Research. She has facilitated and spoken at numerous events, including the International Indigenous Women & Wellness Conference, the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples and the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples. Ginger is featured in the inspirational book: Notes from Canada’s Young Activists: A Generation Stands up for Change (2007). She recently finished her role as Project Manager with the Environics Research Group for the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study – a leading edge national research project conducted on the lives of Aboriginal peoples living in Canada’s cities. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Public Policy at Simon Fraser University.
Julian Griggs
Email: julian@dovetailconsulting.com
Website: www.dovetailconsulting.com
"Much of my facilitation work is undertaken in cross-cultural arenas, using dialogue and other symbolic forms of engagement with the aim of bridging differences, releasing the full potential of organizations, groups or individuals, building relationships, and identifying common areas for agreement."
Julian Griggs is one of the founding Principals of Dovetail Consulting, a Vancouver-based firm specializing in collaborative approaches to environmental planning, resource management and community development. With work experience from Canada, the US, and Southern Africa, and graduate training in both natural and social sciences, Julian brings an interdisciplinary perspective to his work as a facilitator, planner, strategist and trainer. His recent projects have included government-to-government negotiations on behalf of a BC First Nation, working with coalitions of First Nations and conservation organizations, strategic planning for various progressive non-profit organizations, brokering dialogue between senior industry and environmental representatives on energy and climate issues, and several research projects examining multi-party collaborative initiatives. Julian lives in Vancouver with his wife, Eva and three daughters and enjoys time in the clean air and wilderness of deserts and mountains.
David Gustafson
Email: davidgustafson@cjibc.org
David is CJI's co-director of program development. In addition, he is an adjunct professor in Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology, a therapist in private practice, and a registered clinical counsellor. He developed and directed the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) in Langley, BC, later establishing CJI as the society which administered VORP, the present Victim Offender Mediation Program (VOMP), and other community justice and therapeutic programs. He led in the design and implementation at Stave Lake Correctional Centre of highly regarded programs for sexual offenders and adult survivors of incest and sexual assaults. David delivers training and informational workshops locally and internationally, and consults with correctional services and other organizations interested in developing programs similar to those run by CJI. He holds a master’s degree with a focus on Counselling and on Peace and Conflict Studies.
Sylvia Holland
Email: sylviaholland@telus.net
"I explore the intersection of dialogue, negotiation, and strategic planning processes in the framing of challenges and resolution of conflicts, to create collaborative action plans that engage multiple organizations in seeing and freely moving beyond their original mandates."
Sylvia Holland is a planner and facilitator whose academic background is in sociology, adult education and business administration and more recently, urban design. She has led multi-stakeholder deliberations centred on industry-wide development (tourism, aerospace, animation and live film production, real estate, heavy industry, logging and forest products, publishing, information technology, construction and manufacturing sectors), and also in health care, elder abuse, worker safety, and the support and reintegration into community and workplaces of persons who have suffered illness, injury or other forms of disability. She supports public participation processes in urban design and has a keen interest in place-making and public realm enhancements.
Rae Hull
Email: Rae_Hull@vancouver2010.com
Rae Hull is currently Director of Media Programming & Partnerships for the Cultural Olympiad, of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Rae is responsible for the development of digital content and film festival programming for the Cultural Olympiad, and for ensuring that strong relationships are forged with all provinces and territories to maximize participation in the cultural celebrations of Canada’s Games. Rae’s interest in fostering national and inter-provincial relationships has been prevalent throughout her career. In senior leadership roles at CBC Television she worked at a policy and program level to create a wider range of regionally-based voices, and in 2002, led the Vancouver team that produced one of the first cross-platform, user-generated content models in the world – Zed --nominated for an International Emmy. Rae has a broad media background in the private and public sector with experience as a senior administrator, programming executive, journalist, producer and director. She has actively pushed for progress to see the broadcast industry keep pace with the ever-changing face of Canada – creating policies and programs for CBC to enhance its level of diversity both on-screen and behind the scenes.
Genevieve Fuji Johnson
Email: Genevieve_Johnson@sfu.ca
“All public policy binds or, at least, pervasively affects, people. All public policy is, in some way, at some level, coercive. The problem is to justify this coercion. This is especially important in cases of societal and environmental risk and uncertainty. Well-informed and well-reasoned public deliberation is key in establishing this justification.”
Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Associate Professor, is interested in contemporary Anglo-American political theory, feminist social and political thought, ancient Greek political thought, and a range of current public policy issues. She has published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Comparative Policy Analysis, Contemporary Political Theory, Governance, Policy Sciences, and Les Ateliers de l'Éthique. She is author of Deliberative Democracy for the Future: The Case of Nuclear Waste Management in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2008), which has been translated into Japanese (Shinsen Sha, 2011). She is co-editor (with Randy Enomoto) of Race, Racialization and Anti-Racism in Canada and Beyond (University of Toronto Press, 2007) and co-editor (with Darrin Durant) of Nuclear Waste Management in Canada: Critical Issues, Critical Perspectives (UBC Press, 2009). She holds a three-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant to study deliberative democratic practices in areas of Canadian public policy, including social housing, energy generation, and nuclear waste management. This research will culminate in a monograph, tentatively entitled Deliberative Democracy in Canada: Case Studies, to be submitted to the University of Toronto Press.
Dr. Johnson is an Associate Faculty Member of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors (2009-2011) and Executive (2010-2011) of the Canadian Political Science Association.
Tasos Kazepides
Email: tasos_kazepides@sfu.ca
"I believe that dialogue is one of the most important normative concepts in our language. It presupposes all the human virtues which it develops further."
Tasos Kazepides is professor emeritus of education at SFU. He has recently completed a book entitled "Education as Dialogue" which has been submitted to a publisher. He has also written a book called "The Importance of Dialogue and its Enemies" (in Greek) and gave a lecture on "The Virtues of Dialogue" at a conference in Madrid in 2004.
Myriam Laberge
Email: myriam@myriamlaberge.ca and laberge@sfu.ca
"Through the years as a professional facilitator, I've come to know that magic can happen in groups, releasing extraordinary potential, goodwill, and creativity. Only rarely does this occur spontaneously and effortlessly.
Tapping collective intelligence and wisdom usually requires an investment of time spent together in dialogue - sharing, exploring, discovering, learning, bridging, dreaming and planning. A deeply compelling question must catalyze the group’s central intention. A foundation of respect and civility among members is paramount. Appropriate use of process and design matters.”
Myriam Laberge (M.A. Economics, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator) is a senior management and organization development consultant, facilitator and educator who has designed and facilitated hundreds of meetings, sessions, workshops, participative events, and conferences since 1990. Whole system and collective learning approaches are her speciality, which she has applied in private, public, and social-profit engagements over the years, including such methods as Whole Scale Change, Real Time Strategic Change, Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogue, Open Space, Future Search, Search Conference, Technology of Participation, PeerSpirit Circle, Art of Hosting, Scenario Planning, Simu-Real, Study Circles (Everyday Democracy Deliberative Dialogue), The Organization Workshop, The Conference Model for Work Redesign, Dynamic Facilitation, Participative Work Redesign, World Cafe, Theory U, and many others. Since 2000, she has designed and taught Executive Programs on multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue at the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, Simon Fraser University, and in 2006-2008 at Boston College’s Centre for Corporate Citizenship.
Peter Ladner
Email: peter@peterladner.ca
"My communications, business and political experience has revealed again and again the importance of active listening and eager engagement in achieving consensus on the big—and small—issues that are vital to civil society."
Peter Ladner is a former politician and business owner who is currently a business columnist, freelance writer and sustainability consultant. His book, The Urban Food Revolution, Changing the Way We Feed Cities, was published in November 2011.
He was first elected to Vancouver City Council in 2002 and re-elected in 2005. He ran for mayor as the NPA candidate in 2008. As a city councillor, he was the city budget chair, a member of the Food Policy Council, sat on the TransLink Board, and was Vice Chair of the Metro Vancouver board of mayors and councilors from around the Lower Mainland.
Peter has been publisher, president and part owner of the Business in Vancouver Media Group, which he co-founded by establishing the award-winning Business in Vancouver weekly newspaper in 1989. In 1999 he was a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards in his business category. He has more than 35 years of journalistic experience in print, radio and television and is a frequent speaker on business and community issues.
His community and business experience includes participation in the Vancouver City Planning Commission and the Capital Campaign for the Vancouver Public Library and the Central Valley Greenway. He has also served on the boards of Leadership Vancouver, International Centre for Sustainable Cities, The UBC Alumni Association, New Media BC, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Jumpstart Dance Company and the international Association of Area Business Publications.
He is on the board of The Natural Step Canada and the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation.
He is a top-ranked distance runner in Metro Vancouver in his age category and is the former Honorary Chair of the Subaru Vancouver International Half-Iron and Sprint Triathlon.
He lives in Kitsilano with his wife Erica in a home surrounded by food-producing gardens. They have four grown children.
Michelle LeBaron
Email: lebaron@law.ubc.ca
"I am interested in the role of dialogue in bridging worldview and cultural issues, and in researching how arts-related approaches can inform, deepen and open dialogic spaces. I am also interested in how dialogue connects us to multiple ways of knowing and its relationship to spirituality and creativity."
Michelle LeBaron currently serves as Director of the Program on Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She facilitated and evaluated numerous dialogue projects, and has taught dialogic approaches around the world. She was previously a faculty member at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Women's Studies. LeBaron's current work involves using arts-based approaches in dialogue across cultures in organizational and community settings. She is the author of Bridging Troubled Waters, Conflict Resolution from the Heart and Bridging Cultural Conflicts, A New Approach for a Changing World, and Conflict Across Cultures: A Unique Approach for Bridging Differences.
Judith Marcuse
Email: judith@jmprojects.ca
"As an artist working in the world of art for social change, dialogue is at the core of everything I do. Dialogue provides us with tools for deeper understanding and wider empathy while creating landscapes of innovation and possibility."
Judith Marcuse is a Canadian artist and producer whose international career spans over 40 years as a dancer, choreographer, director, producer, teacher, writer and lecturer. She has created over 100 original works for dance, theatre and opera, for film and television, and has produced large-scale national and global festivals. Her repertory dance company toured internationally for over 15 years and was recognized for its brilliant dancers and innovative programming. Her work with and for young people has included large-scale, multifaceted initiatives - workshops with thousands of young people, the creation and touring of live stage productions, television and film projects, and liaison with educators and community-based organizations across Canada.
A pioneer in the field of art for social change, Judith teaches and presents in university and other settings in Canada and abroad. Recipient of many awards, including Canada’s major awards in choreography, and an honourary doctorate from Simon Fraser University, she is Co-Director of the new International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC), a global hub for learning, networking, research and training in the burgeoning field of art for social change/community cultural development.
Gary McCarron
Email: gmccarro@sfu.ca
"My interests in dialogue are wide-ranging, but are chiefly focused on the history and philosophy of rhetoric in relation to modern theories of public persuasion; and discourse analysis, especially in the area of health studies."
Gary McCarron is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication where he is also presently the Graduate Program Chair. He was recently a recipient of Simon Fraser University's Excellence in Teaching Award.
Janet Moore
Email: jlmoore@sfu.ca
"I am interested in how dialogue can be used as a tool for transformative learning at the university. I am also interested in using dialogue as a tool for creating a space to envision alternative futures."
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
Avril Orloff
Email: a.orloff@shaw.ca Website: http://avrilorloff.com
"I am a passionate believer in the power of dialogue to build understanding, reduce conflict and create community, and in the power of art to take dialogue to depths that can't be achieved through words alone."
Avril Orloff is a graphic facilitator who literally 'draws out' people's thinking by creating visual maps of group conversations using a combination of words and images. She has graphically facilitated and recorded meetings, dialogues, workshops and conferences in all sectors, covering a wide variety of issues including such topic areas as oceans management, child and youth mental health, community planning and leadership development. She also offers training in basic graphic recording skills. Avril's previous work includes three years as Convenor of the Philia Dialogue on Caring Citizenship - a cross-sector initiative to nurture caring and inclusive communities - and 16 years as a graphic designer and art director. Her academic background includes degrees in fine arts, design, philosophy and communication, and she has completed the advanced training in Compassionate Listening.
Tony Penikett
Email: tony_penikett@telus.net
Tony Penikett is the author of "Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia," published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2006. Currently a Vancouver- based mediator, Penikett was deputy minister of negotiations for the British Columbia government and, later, deputy labour minister. He was also senior advisor on self-government policy to Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow and has acted as SFU's Centre for Dialogue's Senior Fellow on First Nations' Treaty Issues. A former Yukon premier, Penikett has been involved in aboriginal rights negotiations for over twenty years.
Denise Philippe
Email: denise77@telus.net
"The complexity and scale of issues facing today’s communities are necessitating more collaborative problem-solving and decision-making, often amongst people and organizations with different and sometimes conflicting perspectives. In this environment, dialogue plays an important role by giving people the space to learn from each other, and laying down a foundation of co-operation and shared intention. In the area of sustainability, dialogue can be seen as a necessary precursor to setting action agendas in motion."
Denise Philippe is a Senior Policy Advisor with Metro Vancouver. She co-leads a team responsible for designing and implementing Metro Vancouver’s Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogues, and Metro’s Sustainability Summit and yearly Discussion Forums – the latter is collaborative governance initiative intended to advance action on sustainability in the region. Prior to joining Metro Vancouver, Denise worked as a consultant in land use planning, facilitation and education. She spent eight years as the Program Manager for Evergreen, a national not-for-profit dedicated to creating healthy, sustainable urban communities. In this capacity, she worked with local governments, individual schools and school boards, academic institutions, community leaders, funders and corporate businesses to build relationships across sectors, cultures, generations and throughout public spaces. Denise has a M.Ed. in Environment Education, along with a background in art and community development.
Vanessa Richards
Email: vanessa_richards@sfu.ca
"My commitment to dialogue exists, in large part to support the reclamation of personal creativity as key component for every citizen’s well-being, to enhance livelihood creation for artists and a commitment to see the integration of the cultural industries as a foundation from which to support livable regions within and beyond the GVRD."
Vanessa Richards - MPhil, is a musician, inter-disciplinary artist and facilitator with a foundation in collaboration. Her interests include participatory processes, socially-engaged arts practices, and cross sector partnerships for positive change. Her poetry and critical works are anthologised in the UK, Holland, the United States and Canada. She is the Regional Peer to Peer Facilitator for the Canada Council Equity Office’s capacity building initiative Stand Firm and Chair of the Working Arts Society (Sistahood Celebration).
William Roberts
Email: william@whistlerforum.com
"The solution to a particular issue or problem is temporary. What is most important is the continuing process of dialogue by which a wide range of people construct shared frameworks within which they can devise innovative solutions to meet changing needs."
William Roberts is currently the Executive Director of the Whistler Forum. Previously, he spent twenty years leading faith communities, seven years as a provincial legislator in Alberta (in both health care and human rights) and ten years managing capital campaigns and special projects for a host of non-profit groups in the Pacific Northwest. His studies at Harvard and Columbia in the late 70s led to his Masters of Divinity and his involvement with the Centre for World Religions. In the early 90s he graduated with a Master's Degree from the Executive Programs at the University of Colorado, Denver's School of Business, and began his contact with the Aspen Institute.
Glenn Sigurdson, Senior Dialogue Associate
Email: cse@direct.ca
Glenn is Principal of the CSE Group, a group of independent practitioners formed in Vancouver in 1990 that is dedicated to achieving sustainable outcomes and organizations by building sustainable relationships. Glenn has a proven track record in dealing with complex challenges and difficult problems. He gives leadership to create effective working relationships, build durable partnerships and resolve seemingly intractable disputes. Glenn works internally within groups and organizations as well as among them. The depth and diversity of his experience distinguishes his work as a practitioner, teacher, writer, and speaker.
Sultan Somjee
Email: ssomjee@telus.net
"I am interested in how oral traditions, environmental symbols and material culture of dialogue sustain a culture of dialogue-making as a tradition in ethnic and indigenous communities."
Dr. Somjee was the Head of Ethnography at the National Museums of Kenya from 1994–2000 and has been lecturing at the University of Nairobi. In 2001, Dr. Somjee received the award of the "Unsung Hero of Dialogue among Civilizations" which has been presented by the UN to only twelve individuals worldwide. In 2002 he was honoured by the Interfaith and Survivors Committee of the Slums of Nairobi, with the title of Cultural Ambassador of Peace in recognition of his work during the ethnic killings. Dr. Somjee has a PhD from McGill University in Anthropology and Education in the Arts.
Kennedy Stewart
Email: kennedys@sfu.ca
Kennedy Stewart is a political scientist in Simon Fraser University's Graduate Public Policy Program. He teaches and writes about research methods, democracy, public management and cities. For more information please visit his personal webpage at www.kennedystewart.ca.
Barry Stuart
Email: bdstuart@telus.net
"My primary interest in dialogue is its power to extract from differences the opportunity and energy it offers to build new relationships and innovative solutions. While I began in law, very early in my work, my interest turned to exploring and developing any alternative process that engaged the parties in a consensus-based search for innovative solutions."
Formerly a judge in the Yukon, Barry Stuart has worked internationally on constitutional, environmental, judicial and organizational issues. In his current practice he has joined CSE Group, a Vancouver firm providing alternate dispute resolution services for private and public conflicts. He is closely associated with the Dialogue Group.
Shauna Sylvester
Email: shauna_sylvester@sfu.ca
"As a young activist, I was rewarded for my ability to critique and analyze problems. After working in conflict zones, I began to recognize the toxicity that can result from an oppositional mindset. Dialogue promotes understanding, it creates circles out of trenches and frees us to look at problems and solutions in creative ways."
Shauna Sylvester is a Fellow at the Simon Fraser University Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and the Executive Director of Carbon Talks a national initiative focused on increasing Canada's global competitiveness by shifting to a low carbon economy. Shauna is a skilled facilitator, a social entrepreneur and a commentator on international issues. Prior to leading Carbon Talks, Shauna served as the Founding Director of Canada's World – a national citizen engagement initiative on foreign policy.
Shauna has written and edited several publications related to foreign policy, social and environmental issues and has provided policy advice to governments and foundations on subjects as varied as climate change, human security, media and democratic development. In 1997 to 2006, Shauna co-founded and served as the first Executive Director of IMPACS – the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, a media and democracy organization that operated in Canada and in conflict and post-conflict zones around the world.
In addition to her international work, Shauna is involved in her community. She has served as Treasurer to Mountain Equipment Cooperative and on the boards of Vancity Credit Union, Vancity Capital, the Voluntary Sector Initiative and the BC Assessment Authority.
In 2010 Shauna was recognized by The Simons Foundation as a Peace Leader. In 2003, she was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 in the Globe and Mail after receiving a similar award from Business in Vancouver Magazine in 2000.
Ritendra Tamang
Email: ritendra@shaw.ca
"I am interested in exploring dialogue as a crucial approach to build alliances across differences that are based on social, cultural and political constructs of identity, beliefs and practices, and to gear actions for peaceful resolution of conflicts across the world."
Ritendra Tamang was educated at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, and Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He focuses his studies on anthropology of intersections of international development, mass media and social change and is the Founding Director of the Network for Democracy and Development. Ritendra is currently teaching as assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia.
Vince Verlaan
Email: Vince.Verlaan@hblanarc.ca
Vince Verlaan is responsible for ensuring excellence and innovation in HB Lanarc’s public process, community engagement, and stakeholder consultation work. He is a Provisional Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners, and is a Principal of HB Lanarc.
Vince excels in developing and applying participatory tools and processes that greatly improve plans, projects, policies, and organizations. Building community capacity is a central goal.
With 20 years experience in diverse Canadian and international settings, he develops “strong engagement” initiatives linking different groups for their mutual benefit. Supporting effective collaboration, citizen involvement in governance, consensus-based decision making, action-learning, and positive change are his passions. Healthy communities, participatory governance, social inclusion, social capital, smart growth, and “genuine sustainability” are focus areas.
Peter Williams
Email: peterw@sfu.ca
Dr. Peter Williams is a professional planner and geographer whose interests focus on policy, planning, and management issues related to tourism development. His research interests center on the creation of strategies for guiding the sustainable use of natural and cultural resources for tourism purposes. He and his research team at the Centre for Tourism Policy and Research are currently involved in projects concerned with: building methods for assessing the social and environmental impact of the forthcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games; creating strategies that encourage corporate social responsibility and eco-efficiency in tourism resort development; and establishing land and resource planning programs that match tourism market preferences with the capacities of rural, mountain and coastal tourism communities. In his professional and academic activities Peter employs a wide range of dialogic and stakeholder participatory methods to engage his audiences.
Milton Wong
Email: mkwong@hkbc.com
Milton Wong is Chancellor of Simon Fraser University and Chairman of HSBC Asset Management. In 1997, he was the Chairman and CEO of the 4th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention held in Vancouver. In 1994, he received the "Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year" award. He is the Co-chair of the BC Cancer Foundation Millennium Campaign, founding Chairman of the Dragon Boat Festival, and an advisory board member with the Salvation Army.
