NoWar2018 Speakers, Moderators, Musicians, and Workshop and Discussion Facilitators

The following are confirmed speakers for NoWar2018:

RAY ACHESON
Ray Acheson is the Director of Reaching Critical Will. She provides analysis, research, and advocacy across a range of disarmament and arms control issues. Ray leads WILPF’s work on stigmatising war and violence, including by campaigning for a nuclear weapon ban treaty and challenging the arms trade and the use of explosive weapons and armed drones. Ray is also on the Board of Directors of the Los Alamos Study Group and represents WILPF on several coalition steering groups, including the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). She has an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research. Ray previously worked for the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.

LYN ADAMSON
Lyn is a lifelong Quaker, peace activist, mediator and conflict resolution facilitator. Lyn has travelled with Nonviolent Peaceforce and Peace Brigades International and has worked in Indonesia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Romania and France training peace teams for work in conflict zones. In India and Palestine, Lyn participated in peace work including participation in the Canadian Boat to Gaza in 2011. Lyn has served on many non-profit and cooperative boards for peace, justice, and environmental causes. In her role as Co-Chair of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Lyn has led summer camps for peace leaders, travelled to the UN, and worked with Korean women seeking peace on the Korean Peninsula. Lyn is a member of the board of Science for Peace. Lyn focuses on two challenges: the climate crisis and delegitimizing war. Lyn has two children, and two grandchildren. Her intention is to work together across the generations to build a sustainable and peaceful future for all.

CHRISTINE AHN
Christine Ahn is founder and international coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War, reunite families, and ensure women’s leadership in peacebuilding. In 2015, she led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea to South Korea. They walked with 10,000 Korean women on both sides of the DMZ and held women’s peace symposia in Pyongyang and Seoul where they discussed how to end the war. Christine is also co-founder of the Korea Policy InstituteGlobal Campaign to Save Jeju IslandNational Campaign to End the Korean War, and Korea Peace Network. She has appeared on Aljazeera, Anderson Cooper’s 360, CBC, BBC, Democracy Now!, NBC Today Show, NPR, and Samantha Bee. Ahn’s op-eds have appeared in The New York TimesThe San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, Fortune, The Hill, and The Nation. Christine has addressed the United Nations, U.S. Congress, and ROK National Human Rights Commission, and she has organized peace and humanitarian aid delegations to both North and South Korea.

SAUL ARBESS
Saul Arbess is a Professor of Anthropology (retired) with faculty positions held at Simon Fraser University, Camosun College, U.de Quebec and U. of Saskatchewan. He specializes in: intercultural education, especially First Nations; rapid social change in the Arctic; and cultural adaptation in the American Southwest. Arbess was Director, First Nations Education, Province of British Columbia, 1976-1983, a period of significant expansion of the program for First Nations students and the direct involvement of that community. He was National Co-chair, 2005-2011, and currently a Director, Canadian Peace Initiative, representing 50 plus country representatives and 3 countries and one autonomous region with Ministries of Peace. We are working in concert with other countries to form departments of peace in all nations. He is Co-founder, Restorative Justice Victoria.

KEHKASHAN BASU
Kehkashan Basu is Youth Ambassador and Disarmament Commission Member for the World Future Council, Founder of Green Hope (a youth environmental organisation), Chairperson of the United Arab Emirates chapter of the International Youth Council, former United Nations Environment Programme Global Coordinator for Children & Youth, winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize and the 2013 International Young Eco-Hero award from Action for Nature, youngest member of Canada’s Women in Renewable Energy forum and one of the honorary counters of Count the Nuclear Weapons Money.

 

 

MEDEA BENJAMIN
medea Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. Benjamin is the author of eight books. Her latest books are Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection. Her direct questioning of President Obama during his 2013 foreign policy address, as well as her recent trips to Pakistan and Yemen, helped shine a light on the innocent people killed by U.S. drone strikes. Benjamin has been an advocate for social justice for more than 30 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide.

MELANIE N. BENNETT
Melanie N. Bennett, associate producer, has been a key player in the production and completion of the documentary “The World is My Country.” She has been involved in all aspects of the film and has been working directly under Producer/Director Arthur Kanegis at Future Wave, Inc. since 2008. She assisted with the production of the short film “One! The Garry Davis Story” and with the screenplay for the feature film about Garry Davis.  She has also served as a cinematographer, filming Garry Davis, Leonardo Dicaprio and Michael Moore.  She has edited several shorts and the documentary, “Passport to India”. Previously she worked as the Production Manager at One Productions where she promoted the feature film “Captain Milkshake” on the festival circuit — including The Vienna International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Rotterdam — as well as for the Laemmle Theatre in West Hollywood and Pasadena screenings.  She was also responsible for managing shoots and supervising crew.

LEAH BOLGER
Leah Bolger retired in 2000 from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Commander after twenty years of active duty service. Her career included duty stations in Iceland, Bermuda, Japan and Tunisia and in 1997, was chosen to be the Navy Military Fellow at the MIT Security Studies program. Leah received an MA in National Security and Strategic Affairs from the Naval War College in 1994. After retirement, she became very active in Veterans For Peace, including election as the first woman national president in 2012. Later that year, she was part of a 20-person delegation to Pakistan to meet with the victims of U.S. drones strikes. She is the creator and coordinator of the “Drones Quilt Project,” a traveling exhibit which serves to educate the public, and recognize the victims of U.S. combat drones. In 2013 she was selected to present the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Peace Lecture at Oregon State University. Currently she serves as the Chair of the Coordinating Committee of World BEYOND War.

ANNE CRETER
Anne Creter, MSW is a retired Licensed Social Worker and long-time “peace advocate” who has served the U.S. Peace Alliance in many capacities: National Department of Peacebuilding Committee, NJ State Coordinator, Congressional District (NJ-3) Coordinator, and on their Board of Directors. Globally, she is a UN NGO representative for Peace Through Unity and UN Liaison to the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace; also a founding member of the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace at the UN. Locally, inspired by having been a Bernie “peace” delegate at the 2016 DNC (Bernie Sanders was an original cosponsor of the first Dept of Peace bill in 2001) her peace pursuits now include appointment to her County Democratic Committee and grassroots community organizing.

GAIL DAVIDSON
Gail Davidson is a legal activist working for a better world through advocacy and education to enhance understanding of and compliance with, international human rights and humanitarian law. She is the founder and Executive Director of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada a volunteer-run committee of lawyers and other human rights defenders in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN that promotes international human rights and the rule of law through advocacy, education and legal research. Gail was the co-founder of Lawyers against the War, an international committee of jurists and others formed to oppose war, advocate adherence to international humanitarian law and promote accountability for violators. As part of LAW advocacy, Gail brought torture charges against George W. Bush and pursued the right of a private person or group to prosecute torture suspects using universal jurisdiction, through appeal courts in Canada and the UN Committee against Torture.

ROSE DYSON
Rose Dyson Ed.D. has a background in psychiatric nursing, a B.A. and an M.Ed. in Psychology and Counseling. Her doctorate on violence in the media and cultural policy completed at OISE/UT was followed by her book MIND ABUSE Media Violence in An Information Age (2000). She has co-authored 10 additional peer reviewed books, given numerous papers and speeches both nationally and internationally, edited The Learning Edge for the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education for 17 years and now writes a regular column in Jo lee Magazine. She is President of Canadians Concerned About Violence in Entertainment, Chair of the National Advisory Council to the Canadian Peace Research Association, Director of Communication for the Toronto Branch of the World Federalists and a member of the Climate Action Network. She is a member and has been a frequent participant in annual Canadian Voice of Women delegations to the UN Commission on the Status of Women Meetings in New York City.

YVES ENGLER

Former Vice President of the Concordia Student Union, Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist and author. He has published seven books about Canadian foreign policy.

Yves has been dubbed “Canada’s version of Noam Chomsky” (Georgia Straight), “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left” (Briarpatch), and “part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada’s self-satisfied myths” (Quill & Quire).

 

JOSEPH ESSERTIER
Joseph Essertier is an American living in Japan who began actively opposing war in 1998 during the Kosovo War. Subsequently, he came out against Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in 2016 the construction in Henoko and Takae that anti-base Okinawans have tenaciously resisted and successfully slowed down. He has recently written and spoken about Japanese activists who educate their fellow citizens about history and resist denialism surrounding the Asia-Pacific War. His research has mostly focused on language reform movements between the 1880s and 1930s in Japan that facilitated democracy, inclusivity, cultural diversity in Japan and abroad, and writing by women. He is presently an associate professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology.

DAVID GALLUP
David Gallup is President of the World Service Authority, Washington, DC, a global public service human rights organization founded in 1954. Prior to working at the WSA, Mr. Gallup was a Legal Research Consultant conducting research on construction contracts and mechanics’ liens and a Dean’s Fellow at the Washington College of Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic, Washington, DC, where he researched asylum and international human rights issues, developed and maintained a human rights document library, coordinated a human rights education workshop and represented asylum applicants. He is a Board Member of Citizens for Global Solutions. He is the Convenor of the World Court of Human Rights Coalition. For fifteen years, he was the Secretary of the United Nations Association Task Forces on UN Restructuring and on Cultures of Peace. He received a J.D. in 1991 from the Washington College of Law, American University in Washington, DC and an A.B. in French and an A.B. in History from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in 1988. He has taken coursework toward an M.A. in International Affairs at the School of International Service, American University, and has spent a year at the Université de Caen in France.

WILLIAM GEIMER
William Geimer, author, peace activist, is a veteran of the U.S. 82d Airborne Division and Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington and Lee University. After resigning his commission in opposition to the war on Vietnam, he represented conscientious objectors and advised peace groups near Ft. Bragg NC, once representing Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory and Donald Sutherland in negotiations with police. A Canadian citizen, he lives with his wife near Victoria, British Columbia where he is a member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network. He is the author of Canada: The Case for Staying Out of Other People’s Wars and serves as advisor on policy issues of peace and war to Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

DOUG HEWITT-WHITE
Doug Hewitt-White is the president of Conscience Canada, and is retired from a public service career in creative and communications services. Conscience Canada is a national military tax resistance group that has worked for over 35 years to promote a change in law to allow Canadians the right to conscientiously object to military taxation as a right of conscience guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Conscience Canada maintains a Peace Tax Fund where Conscientious Objectors to military taxation can deposit the military portion of their taxes.

 

TONY JENKINS
Tony Jenkins, PhD, is Education Coordinator for World BEYOND War. He has 15+ years of experience directing and designing peacebuilding and international educational programs and projects and leadership in the international development of peace studies and peace education. Since 2001 he has served as the Managing Director of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) and since 2007 as the Coordinator of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE). Professionally, he has been: Director, Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo (2014-16); Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Peace Academy (2009-2014); and Co-Director, Peace Education Center, Teachers College Columbia University (2001-2010). In 2014-15, Tony served as a member of UNESCO’s Experts Advisory Group on Global Citizenship Education.

PETER JONES
Dr. Peter Jones is the hosting professor for No War 2018, as a design faculty member at Toronto’s OCAD University, where he teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation Master’s program. Peter coordinates design programs and conducts studies for redesign of healthcare systems and practices, community planning and public policy, and societal and business flourishing. Peter promotes and teaches social design and research methods for understanding and addressing the complex sociopolitical systems that lead to conflict and divisive, anti-democratic policies. Peter has been deeply involved in forming and facilitating community-based dialogues in Toronto, with the unique Design with Dialogue (since 2008), and an organizer with Unify Toronto, engaging civil society and creatives in conversations for change, decolonization, and social economic alternatives to the present course of global capitalism.

SHREESH JUYAL
Dr. Shreesh Juyal, Drs., D.Litt., FCIIA, author/editor of nine books and over 120 articles published in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., India and by the United Nations, is an immigrant citizen in Canada with over 40 years of academic career as a professor and university dean. He has been a ‘Distinguished Professor of International Law and Political Science’. With a boundless progressive thinking imbued with very many decades of advocacy, activism and research for world peace, nuclear disarmament and an anti-war ideology, he led the 14-million membership National University Students Council of India in his youth, took a leadership role in the progressive World Youth Forum, and an active role in the Anti-Vietnam War Movement while a student at the University of Michigan and guest editor of The Michigan Daily. He is currently the Vice President of the World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW), succeeding the two-time Nobel Laureate, Linus Pauling. The WFSW has been advocating nuclear disarmament, human rights and international development since 1954. In 2003, Prof. Juyal collaborated with 88 cities’ community groups and organized mass rallies which successfully persuaded the Government of Canada to not take part in the Iraq War. The belligerent pressure of the United States on its NATO ally Canada did not succeed. Biographed in the  CANADIAN WHO’S WHO, Prof. Juyal is the recipient of the YMCA of Canada Peace Medal and The Global Citizen Award of the United Nations Association of Canada.

ARTHUR KANEGIS
Arthur Kanegis, writer/producer/director, is president and founder of Future WAVE, Inc. a non-profit working for alternatives to violence in entertainment. His movies include: The World Is My Country, 2018, a feature-length documentary that has garnered standing ovations and sold-out theaters in film festivals. See TheWorldIsMyCountry.com/applause As Director and Producer, Kanegis spent more than a decade researching, developing, producing and directing the amazing story of World Citizen #1 Garry Davis. It is a lost piece of history that Martin Sheen calls “a roadmap to a better future.” Kanegis also produced The Day After, 1983, an ABC TV movie with Jason Robards. Over 100 million people tuned in – the largest audience ever for a TV movie. It was also shown widely in the Soviet Union, and Ronald Reagan credits it with convincing him that nuclear war was unwinnable, leading to the START talks reducing US and Soviet armaments.

AZEEZAH KANJI
Azeezah Kanji (JD, LLM) is a legal academic and writer, whose work focuses on issues related to racism, colonialism, and social justice. She is the Director of Programming at Noor Cultural Centre, a Muslim educational, religious, and cultural institution in Toronto. The Centre’s work is dedicated to advancing causes of gender, racial, decolonial, economic, environmental, and animal justice from the perspective of Islamic ethical and legal traditions. Azeezah is a regular speaker in community and academic spaces, and her writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, rabble, ROAR Magazine, OpenDemocracy, iPolitics, and various academic anthologies and journals.

 

TOM KERNS
Thomas Kerns, emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Seattle Community College has taught online courses in Bioethics, Ways of Knowing and Environment and Human Rights.

Dr Kerns is author of Environmentally Induced Illnesses: Ethics, Risk Assessment and Human Rights (McFarland, 2001), has lectured at World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva and served as commissioner on the New Zealand People’s Inquiry into Aerial Pesticide Sprays Over Auckland (2006).

Tom is also a Board member of Beyond Toxics.

TAMARA LORINCZ
Tamara Lorincz is a PhD student in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs (Wilfrid Laurier University). Tamara graduated with an MA in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in 2015. She was awarded the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship and was a senior researcher for the International Peace Bureau in Switzerland. Tamara is currently on the board of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the international advisory committee of Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space. She is a member of the Canadian Pugwash Group and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Tamara was a co-founding member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network in 2016. Tamara has an LLB/JSD and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. She is the former Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network and co-founder of the East Coast Environmental Law Association. Her research interests are the military’s impacts on the environment and climate change, the intersection of peace and security, gender and international relations, and military sexual violence.

LEE MARACLE
Ms. Maracle is the author of a number of award winning and critically acclaimed literary works including: Sojourner’s and Sundogs [collected work of novel and short stories], Polestar/Raincoast, Ravensong [novel], Bobbi Lee [autobiographical novel], Daughters Are Forever, [novel] Will’s Garden [young adult novel], Bent Box [poetry], I Am Woman, Memory Serves, Celia’s Song, Talking to the Diaspora [poetry] and My Conversations with Canadians (non-fiction). She is the co-editor of a number of anthologies including the award winning publication, My Home As I Remember [anthology]. She is also co-editor of Telling It: Women and Language across Culture [conference proceedings]. Ms. Maracle is published in anthologies and scholarly journals worldwide. Maracle was born in North Vancouver and is a member of the Sto: Loh nation. The mother of four and grandmother of seven, Maracle is currently an instructor at the University of Toronto. She is also the Traditional Teacher for First Nation’s. In 2009, Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University. Maracle is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, U of T. Maracle recently received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work promoting writing among Aboriginal Youth. Maracle has served as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and the University of Western Washington. Maracle has also received 3 teaching awards. Work in progress includes Hope Matters and Mink Returns to Toronto.

IEHNHOTONKWAS BONNIE JANE MARACLE
Iehnhotonkwas Bonnie Jane Maracle, from the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation, Tyendinaga Territory, Ontario, Canada, holds a B.A. in Indigenous Studies, Trent; a B.Ed. & M.Ed., Queen’s; and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Indigenous Studies, Trent, with areas of research that include Indigenous Education, Indigenous Research, and Indigenous Language Revitalization. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna Language & Culture Centre at Tyendinaga, the Ontario Native Literacy Coalition at Ohsweken, and the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community in NY. Bonnie Jane is a Sessional Instructor at OISE and Dept of Linguistics, U of Toronto; and at U Victoria, BC in the Aboriginal Language Revitalization Program; and is presently employed at First Nations House, U of Toronto, as the Aboriginal Learning Strategist.

BRANKA MARIJAN
Branka Marijan is a program officer with Project Ploughshares. Branka holds a PhD from the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Her dissertation, entitled “Neither War, Nor Peace: Everyday Politics, Peacebuilding and the Liminal Condition of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland” is concerned with the uncertain peace that persists in post-conflict societies long after peace agreements have been signed. Her broader research interests include state-building, police reform, and civil-military relations. Branka holds an MA in Globalization Studies, and an honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies and German from McMaster University. She has also completed the Geneva International Students Program at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

AL MYTTY
Since completing the nine-month JustFaith program, which focuses on building a more just and peaceful world, Al has been involved in a variety of social justice programs including Pax Christi and World BEYOND War, for which he serves as the Coordinator for the Central Florida chapter. Al fulfilled a high school dream of receiving an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a Cadet, he became disillusioned about the morality and effectiveness of war and U.S. militarism and received an Honorable Discharge from the Academy. He completed a Master of Social Work degree and spent his working career as a founder and executive with local health plans. He resides with his wife in The Villages, Florida. His four adult children and their spouses and ten children keep Al and his wife busy and traveling.

TOM NEILSON AND LYNN WALDRON
Tom Neilson, Ed.D. combines art with activism. He has received over two dozen awards, to include two song of the year awards from Independent Musicians.  In 2017, he received the Arab American Women Association Award for Education About Palestine Through Performance Art. In 2015 he was nominated for the United Nations Nelson Mandela Award for Lifetime Achievement in Peace and Justice. Says Michael Stock of WLRN, Miami, FL, “Tom does a great job of reminding people of what is really important, and the power of folk music to say it.”  Tom’s wife, Lynn Waldron, will join him in performance. Her activist work includes working with the Sugar Shack Alliance to prevent new fossil fuel infrastructure in New England. She joins Tom as actress and singer in the Jobs With Justice annual “Voices of Labor History” production to celebrate and honor May Day. She also sings in a hospice choir where small groups sing at bedside for the critically ill and dying.  They live in Greenfield, MA.

jamesJAMES T. RANNEY
James T. Ranney is Adjunct Professor of Law at Widener’s Delaware campus. Professor Ranney joined Widener in 2011, coming out of semi-retirement to team-teach International Law. While in private practice, Professor Ranney specialized in criminal law, class actions, medical malpractice, and employment law. Prior to that, he was University Legal Counsel for the University of Montana and Research Professor of law at the University of Montana School of Law, teaching courses in Criminal Procedure, Legal Writing, Legal History, and Contemporary Legal Problems (“Law and World Peace”). Professor Ranney was a co-founder of the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (in Missoula, Montana), a Legal Consultant to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions, and is currently a Board Member of the Project for Nuclear Awareness. He has been speaking on the subject of ending war for decades.

LIZ REMMERSWAAL HUGHES
Liz Remmerswaal Hughes is a mother, journalist, environmentalist activist and former politician, having served six years on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.The daughter and granddaughter of soldiers, who fought other people’s wars in far flung places, she never got over war’s stupidity, and became a pacifist. Liz is an active Quaker and currently Co-Vice-President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Aotearoa/New Zealand. She has strong links with the Australian peace movement and the Swords into Ploughshares group. Liz has enjoyed such activities as biking to the gates of the Pine Gap American military spy base in Alice Springs, Australia, planting an olive tree for peace in the Peace Palace in the Hague on the centenary of Anzac, singing peace songs outside military bases and making tea parties beside warships during the NZ Navy’s 75th birthday. In 2017 she was awarded the Sonia Davies Peace Award which enabled her to study Peace Literacy with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara, attend the WILPFf triennial Congress in Chicago, and a workshop on Peace and Conscience in Ann Arbor.

LAURIE ROSS
Laurie Ross’s projects between 1982 and 2018 have included: the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone Committee and Peacemaking Association, and the NZ Peace Foundation Aotearoa International Affairs and Disarmament Committee. She has been the organiser of Peace City educational cultural events, and of a New Zealand Nuclear Free Peacemaker Exhibition for Libraries and Galleries. Ross has been Coordinator of the Nuclear Free NZ 30th anniversary event. Ross has also been UNA NZ Auckland Vice President. She is a public speaker on peace and disarmament, and has given school presentations on: UN ‘Our Common Security: an Agenda for Disarmament.’

 

KENT SHIFFERD
Kent Shifferd is a member of World BEYOND War’s Coordinating Committee. A life-long environmental and peace activist, Shifferd holds a Ph.D. in European intellectual history from Northern Illinois University. He taught for thirty years in the interdisciplinary environmental studies curriculum at Northland College. He established Northland’s undergraduate major “Studies in Conflict and Peacemaking” and was Director of that program for 15 years. Shifferd was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, a 21-campus consortium, serving several terms as Associate Director, Executive Director and Editor of its journal. He left teaching in 1999 to devote full time to writing about environment, war and peace, and religion. He was a member of the team that created the award-winning distance learning program Dilemmas Of War And Peace. He is the author of From War To Peace: A Guide To The Next Hundred Years. He was lead author for A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (a publication of World BEYOND War).

MARC ELIOT STEIN
Marc Eliot Stein is a member of World BEYOND War’s Coordinating Committee. He is a father of three and a native New Yorker. He has been a web developer since the 1990s, and over the years has built sites for Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, the international literary site Words Without Borders, the Allen Ginsberg estate, Time Warner, A&E Network/History Channel, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Center for Disease Control and Meredith Digital Publishing. He is also a writer, and for years he maintained a popular literary blog called Literary Kicks using the pen name Levi Asher (he still runs the blog, but has ditched the pen name). “I’m a latecomer to political activism. It was the Iraq War and the atrocities that followed that woke me up. I’ve been exploring various tough topics on a website I launched in 2015, http://pacifism21.org. Speaking out against war can feel like shouting into a void, so I was thrilled to come to my first World Beyond War conference (NoWar2017) and meet other people who have been active for this cause for a long time.”

DAVID SWANSON
davidDavid Swanson is Director of World BEYOND War. His books include: War Is Never Just, War Is A Lie, War No More: The Case for Abolition, and When the World Outlawed War.  He is the host of  Talk Nation Radio. He has been a journalist, activist, organizer, educator, and agitator.  Swanson helped plan the nonviolent occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington DC in 2011.  Swanson holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He blogs at davidswanson.org and warisacrime.org and works as Campaign Coordinator for the online activist organization rootsaction.org.

WILLIAM TIMPSON
Dr. William M. Timpson is a professor in the School of Education at Colorado State University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in American History from Harvard University, he went on to teach junior and senior high school in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio before completing his Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Along with numerous articles, chapters and grants, he has written or co-authored nineteen books including several that address issues of peace and reconciliation, sustainability and diversity. From 1981-1984 he was the recipient of a Kellogg National Fellowship to explore educational issues internationally including extended visits to Brazil, Nicaragua and Cuba (literacy), Asia and Scandinavia (educational change), and Eastern Europe (war, persecution, peace and reconciliation). In 2006 he served as a Fulbright Specialist in peace and reconciliation studies at the University of Ulster’s UNESCO Centre in Northern Ireland and again in 2011 at the University of Ngozi in Burundi, East Africa where he continues to work with Rotary International Global Grants to infuse sustainable peace studies into the academic programs of the University of Ngozi, the area schools and church communities. In Spring 2014 he served as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar at Kyung Hee’s Graduate Institute of Peace Studies in South Korea. In February 2018 he served as an evaluator for the Rotary Peace Center at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

ELIZABETH (DORI) TUNSTALL
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities. With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.

DANIEL TURP
Daniel Turp est professeur à la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal depuis 1982 et détient le rang de titulaire. Il enseigne le droit international public, le droit international et constitutionnel des droits fondamentaux ainsi que le droit constitutionnel avancé et est président de l’Association québécoise de droit constitutionnel et président du Conseil de la Société québécoise de droit international. Il est également membre du Conseil d’orientation du Réseau francophone de droit international et fondateur du Concours de procès-simulé en droit international Charles-Rousseau.

Daniel Turp has been a tenured professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Montreal since 1982 . He teaches public international law,  international  and constitutional law as it affects basic human rights, as well as advanced constitutional law. He is president of the Quebec Association of Constitutional Law (AQDC) and president of the Quebec Society of International Law (SQDI). He is also a member of the Guidance Council of the Francophone Network of International Law and the founder of the Concours de procès-simulé en droit international Charles- Rousseau ( Charles- Rousseau simulated international law trial competition).

DONNAL WALTER
Donnal Walter serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War and helps maintain its website and presence on social media. He also maintains two Facebook groups: A Global Security System and On Care for Our Common Home. He is active in the Arkansas Coalition for Peace and Justice, a local affiliate of World Beyond War, and is a regular participant in Arkansas Peace Week. He was a participant in #NoWar2016 in Washington, DC. Donnal is on the board of Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light and a member of the Little Rock Citizens Climate Lobby. In 2015, he organized a two-bus contingent from Arkansas and Tennessee to the People’s Climate March in New York City. He is sought after as a discussant of Pope Francis’ climate encyclical, Laudato Si’. Donnal is a neonatologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and on the faculty of University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He is an active member of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.

ALYN WARE
Alyn Ware (New Zealand, Czech Republic) is Co-founder and Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, Consultant for the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, Peace and International Security Officer for the United Nations Association of New Zealand, Chair of the World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Commission, and Co-founder of Abolition 2000, UNFOLD ZERO and Move the Nuclear Weapons Money. Alyn was a co-founder of Peace Movement Aotearoa-New Zealand which coordinated the successful campaign to ban nuclear weapons in New Zealand. He was also the UN Coordinator for the World Court Project, which led the effort to achieve a ruling from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. Alyn has received a number of awards including the UN International Year for Peace Award (1986) and the Right Livelihood Award (2009) and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at least twice.

RAVYN WNGZ
Ravyn Wngz has a vision to create work/art/conversations that open the minds and the hearts of all people, and encourages self reflection and fundamental change. As an Empowerment Movement Storyteller, Wngz aims to challenge mainstream arts and dance spaces by sharing her stories as a Tanzanian, Bermudian, Queer, 2 Spirit, Transcendent, Mohawk individual. She aims to create opportunities, positive representations and platforms for marginalized LGBTTIQQ2S communities with a focus on Black Indigenous and people of color. Ravyn is a co-founder of ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company, a queer multiracial dance company that aims to change the landscape of dance and provide accessible affirming dance education to the LGBTTIQQ2S community. Ravyn is also a member of Black Live Matter Toronto Steering committee, a group committed to eradicating all forms of anti-Black racism, supporting Black healing and liberating Black communities.

GRETA ZARRO
Greta is Organizing Director for World BEYOND War. She has a background in issue-based community organizing. Her experience includes volunteer recruitment and engagement, event organizing, coalition building, legislative and media outreach, and public speaking. Greta graduated as valedictorian from St. Michael’s College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology. She then pursued a master’s in Food Studies at New York University before accepting a full-time community organizing job with leading non-profit Food & Water Watch. There, she worked on issues related to fracking, genetically engineered foods, climate change, and the corporate control of our common resources. Greta describes herself as a vegetarian sociologist-environmentalist. She is interested in the interconnections of social-ecological systems and sees the profligacy of the military-industrial complex, as part of the larger corporatocracy, as the root of many cultural and environmental ills. She and her partner currently live in an off-grid tiny home on their organic fruit and vegetable farm in Upstate New York.

KEVIN ZEESE
Kevin Zeese is a member of World BEYOND War’s Advisory Board. He is a public interest attorney who has worked for economic, racial and environmental justice since graduating from George Washington Law School in 1980. He co-directs PopularResistance.org which works to build the independent movement for transformational change. Zeese co-hosts, Clearing the FOG radio which airs on We Act Radio, Progressive Radio Network and other outlets. He is recognized as a leading activist in the United States in the series Americans Who Tell the Truth. Zeese was an organizer of the Occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC in 2011. Zeese is co-founder of Come Home America which brings people from across the political spectrum together to work against war and militarism. He served on the steering committees of the Chelsea Manning Support Network which advocated for the Wikileaks whistle-blower, as well as on the advisory board of the Courage Foundation which supports Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers.

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