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Phil Chalk

SENIOR ANALYST, DIALOGUE & ENGAGEMENT

Pronouns: he/him
Areas of Focus: Democractic Participation, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Access
Email: pchalk@sfu.ca

 

Phil supports the Social Enterprise team by helping to implement a variety of stakeholder and public dialogue engagement initiatives led by the Centre, and on behalf of government and civil society organizations.

Since 2017, Phil has been coordinating, designing and/or facilitating dialogue and engagement events and programs. From 2017 to 2022, Phil worked on 6 Degrees, “the global forum for inclusion,” where he contributed to large public dialogues about inclusion and active citizenship, reaching 10,000+ total attendees at events across Canada, internationally, and online.

Since joining SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in 2022, Phil has supported 50+ public and stakeholder engagement events spanning critical issues such as democratic resilience, health, urban planning, provincial wildfire and flood strategy, public legal education and information and many more. Phil is passionate about dialogue, and the inclusion of diverse and equity-deserving voices, especially as an input to an effective, vibrant, and representative democracy.

Phil has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto with a major in Political Science, and minors in Canadian Studies and History. He also has a Postgraduate Certificate from Humber College in Event Management.

Outside of the Centre, you will often find Phil enjoying the outdoors while biking, hiking, or camping, or inside making some noise on a drum kit or guitar.

What is your role at the Centre for Dialogue?

I support the Social Enterprise team by helping to implement a variety of stakeholder and public dialogue engagement initiatives led by the Centre, and on behalf of government and civil society organizations.

This includes the design and administration of engagement processes, collaboration with a variety of project partners and community knowledge holders, facilitation of discussions, analysis of outputs from public and stakeholder engagements and development of What We Heard reports.

Since joining the Centre, I have worked on a variety of engagement projects on important topics including democratic participation, transportation, urban development, climate resilience, wildfire mitigation, flood strategy, and post-secondary strategy, all with attention to the inclusion of diverse and under-heard voices.

What does dialogue mean to you?

To me, dialogue means the intersection and interaction of different perspectives; a variety of people bringing their knowledge and experience together to broaden understanding, develop connections, generate ideas, and / or make decisions.

What is a common assumption you'd like to demystify?

The assumption I would like to de-mystify is the assumption that differing perspectives from one’s own can be known or understood without engagement. None of us knows what everyone else thinks, or why they think it. Dialogue helps us to develop empathy and understanding with the depth and nuance that is needed to address society’s most pressing and far-reaching challenges.

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