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Jude Crasta

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, MULTILEVEL CLIMATE ACTION

Pronouns: he/him
Email: jude_crasta@sfu.ca

Jude Crasta is the Associate Director, Multilevel Climate Action at the SFU Centre for Dialogue. As part of this portfolio, he leads two Centre initiatives — Moving in a Livable Region (MLR) and the Cities + Climate Initiative. 

These two initiatives seeks to raise the profile of cities and regions as frontline players in various pressing issues, while building trust and a culture of equal collaboration among various entities. In the public sphere, these initiatives bring new forms of knowledge translation and engagement on these issues to inject some insight and values exploration into decision-making. 

Jude is a communicator, designer, strategist, and entrepreneur who likes to work on the front lines of 'head-scratcher' projects that have larger social impact. Born in Kuwait City, Kuwait, he values and likes to bring international perspectives to support the advancement of domestic challenges, while raising the positive participation of Canadian entities in a dynamic global landscape. 

Jude comes from a background of leadership and support roles in various non-profit organizations. Having partnered with different levels of government, he has worked on issues relating to transportation, infrastructure, education spending, climate change, and innovation. He is also an aviator and is interested in advancements in the fields of aeronautics and sustainable aviation.

What is your role at the Centre for Dialogue?

I lead two initiatives at the Centre—Moving in a Livable Region and Cities + Climate—that deal with climate action and local government issues in a structure where cities partner with other levels of government and civil society.

Moving in a Livable Region brings stakeholders in Metro Vancouver together to work on pressing issues of mobility and land use integration. At Cities + Climate, we scale up that work to a more national audience, encompassing federal government and cities across the country, to work on even more issues.  

Leading these initiatives means leading staff members who work on it, supporting their inputs into the programming content, as well as developing the strategy and personal relationships to deliver on our programming.

What does dialogue mean to you?

We often talk about dialogue as a tool to solve issues or move past difficult points, but fundamentally to me, dialogue is a key aspect human interaction. Whenever we get together as a social species, we want to be able to exchange ideas, get a sense of how other people think and combine minds so people can bring in their own experiences to process a situation. As practitioners, our role in dialogue is to support this in a way where the exercise is fulfilling for everybody who participates and where people appreciate the fact that we can come together and speak to one another. 

What is a common assumption you'd like to de-mistify?

Dialogue is not just a talking exercise. Dialogue, when done well and with purpose, can enhance the people who engage in it and how they relate to issues that need to be addressed. Dialogue can directly bring out solutions that otherwise may not have come about without the combined expertise of those involved.

In addition, climate work within cities and communities is often seen as separate from other issues that people have going on in their day-to-day lives. However, whenever any climate work is being done within any sphere, it invariably means that work on other issues that are tied together is also being accomplished. 

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