Executive Director

Overview 

Executive Director, SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue 

The Executive Director role at The Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University is an exceptional opportunity for a leader with experience and expertise in facilitating engaged and meaningful discussions that address the issues of our times.    

In Canada, Simon Fraser University (SFU) is the only university with a dedicated facilitation practice, using dialogue to advance solutions for complex social issues. With only a few peer institutes internationally, SFU’s Centre for Dialogue has a positive reputation and recognition as a “global centre for the knowledge and practice of dialogue”.   

Learning to talk across and despite differences and solve problems collectively is at the core of what it takes to begin to address the difficult challenges facing our world.  The Centre for Dialogue has extensive expertise and a rich history in bringing people together in an ecosystem of programs to do this important work. It lives in a remarkable facility, designed for democratic dialogue and public engagement. Within the Centre, its community of approximately 50 full time employees has a high level of expertise, strong professionalism, and a collective desire to do meaningful and sustained work addressing society’s most pressing challenges.   

For over 20 years, The Centre’s nationally acclaimed experiential learning programs have produced countless facilitative leaders while also increasing the democratic capacity of the communities it serves. The Semester in Dialogue is an outstanding example of these. By leveraging its role as a trusted public institution and by holding space for difficult conversations, SFU’s Centre for Dialogue remains uniquely situated to contribute to a new democratic culture that is bold, curious, participatory and equitable in voice. 

This is an important time of transition for the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, with opportunities to recharge the mission and further align programs for the next generation of facilitative leadership and with SFU’s What’s Next vision.  

The new Executive Director will have executive organizational leadership experience with the ability and interest in managing a large, multi-faceted team as well as experience establishing and implementing the strategic direction and finding new opportunities for the organizations they have served. With expertise with the practice and pedagogy of methods of dialogue and a reputation as a facilitative leader for a mission-driven organization, the ED will be able to gain the respect and build strong relations with academic and community stakeholders.  The ED will also have commitment and experience with Reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenization, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion.  Administrative management experience with a post-secondary organization and teaching and research experience in an academic setting would provide useful, complementary knowledge and aid in the success in this role.