Dr. Mark L. Winston

PROFESSOR AND SENIOR FELLOW, CENTRE FOR DIALOGUE

winstonhive.com

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 used 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.

Dr. Winston's work has appeared in numerous books, commentary columns for the Vancouver SunThe New York TimesThe SciencesOrion magazine, and frequently on CBC radio and television and National Public Radio.

Dr. Winston is a Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and was the Founding Director of the Semester in Dialogue (2002–2014) and the Centre for Dialogue (2006–2014). In 2020, he joined the SFU Library as the first Non-Fiction Writer in Residence.

About Mark's Fellowship

Dr. Mark Winston partners with universities, corporations, NGOs, governments and communities to advance dialogue and communication skills, engage public and stakeholder audiences with controversial issues through dialogue, and implement experiential learning and community engagement in educational institutions.

Facilitation

Dr. Winston is facilitating Getting to Tomorrow, 18 national dialogues in communities across Canada exploring a health and human rights-based approach to substance use. These conversations are being held in collaboration with SFU's Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, and are designed to bring together individuals with lived and living experience, health care responders, government policy makers, politicians and non-profit interest groups to co-design a better future together.

Communication

Dr. Winston is currently the SFU Library's inaugural Non-Fiction Writer in Residence emphasizing the power of non-fiction writing to share knowledge beyond academia, enhancing the SFU community's capacity to tell compelling research and scholarship stories. As Writer in Residence, he delivers workshops on non-fiction writing for public audiences, and offering opportunities to receive feedback and mentoring on their own projects, to SFU graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff.

Learning and Teaching

Dr. Winston is the lead faculty on the Centre's Semester In project, facilitating SFU Departments and Faculties to incorporate semester-long, cohort-based learning approaches into their curriculum, similar to the Semester in Dialogue. Faculty develop their own courses as part of their Department/Faculty academic offerings, with the support and mentorship of Semester in Dialogue faculty and staff.

Learn more about Dr. Mark Winston’s work on his personal website Winston Hive.

Selected Media & Publications

Select Honours and Awards

  • 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 Killam Fellowship from the Canada Council
  • Election as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada
  • 2015 Governor-General's Literary Award for Nonfiction (Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive)

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