Announcing The Centre for Dialogue's Next Executive Director: Aftab Erfan

After a long period of searching and transition, the Centre for Dialogue is excited to announce the appointment of Aftab Erfan as our next Executive Director! 

Aftab joins us after serving as the City of Vancouver’s inaugural Chief Equity Officer. She spent more than a decade with UBC as an instructor and adjunct professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning and also served as Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement. Aftab has extensive experience as a facilitator and in hosting dialogue on contentious issues. In fact, she brings 15 years of experience on five continents.

Aftab has won numerous awards, including BC500 most influential business leaders in BC and Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers Challenge, prize for community impact associated with action research with Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nations, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She has a PhD in Community and Regional Planning, a Master’s of Urban Planning from McGill University, and a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from UBC.

We would like to thank Laurie Anderson who served as Interim Executive Director for the past 13 months and ably led the Centre for Dialogue team and their critical work.  He will continue in this role until Aftab’s arrival. 

We are so excited to welcome and celebrate Aftab when she officially starts her position in August. We look forward to working alongside and learning from Aftab's expertise, leadership and experiences as she leads the Centre to through this exciting next stage.