Announcing new Executive Director, SFU Centre for Dialogue

The SFU Centre for Dialogue is pleased to announce the hiring of Aftab Erfan as its next Executive Director. She will begin with SFU at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue on August 30, 2023.

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 dialogues 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 of Urban Planning from McGill University and a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from UBC.

The hiring panel was impressed with her vision, passion for dialogue, strong record of success in operationalizing programs in large public sector institutions, as well as her relationship building and collaboration skills. Aftab is the leader who can advance the very successful programs and relationships at the Centre for Dialogue and across SFU that will continue to make a difference for BC.

Thank you to 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. 

Please help us welcome Aftab when she joins us in August.