Meet Our Speakers.
Masako Toki
Masako Toki is a Senior Project Manager and Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute in Monterey, CA. She is passionate about disarmament and nonproliferation education for young generations. She coordinates the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) to promote disarmament and nonproliferation education to high school students and teachers in the US, Japan, and other countries, and the Summer Undergraduate Nonproliferation Fellowship Program. Her research interests include Japan’s nuclear disarmament policy, nonproliferation and disarmament education, humanitarian initiative, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Her articles have been published on several online and print media outlets both in English and Japanese.
She is also a member of the Japan Association of Disarmament Studies and the US-Japan Leadership Program (US-Japan Foundation). She has participated in a number of nuclear disarmament conferences in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and other places, and the NPT Review Conferences and Preparatory Committee Sessions since 2000 as one of CNS’s representatives.
Franco Castro Escobar
Franco is a PhD candidate at Keele University's David Bruce Center for the Study of the Americas and a research fellow at the Hiroshima Peace Institute. His research focuses on youth involvement in nuclear disarmament, aiming to better understand how and why young people join or create anti-nuclear organizations in a decades-long movement that has "grayed"—having less and less young people join the movement. Due to the aging of Hibakusha, Franco's research interrogates what we can do to make the movement more sustainable, preserve the memory of the use of nuclear weapons, and include younger voices in the field.
In 2024, Franco spent three months residing in Hiroshima, Japan, conducting interviews with anti-nuclear youth organizations from multiple cities. Towards the end of his residency, Franco participated the first Youth Leader Fund for a World without Nuclear Weapons.
Hon. Marilou McPhedran
Marilou is a human rights lawyer, professor and activist, appointed as an Independent Senator in the Parliament of Canada by Governor General David Johnston on the recommendation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2016.
Marilou was one of the most influential leaders of the 1981 Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women on the Constitution conference - the grassroots social movement of women across Canada resulting in stronger equality rights in the constitution.
She attended the ICAN Nuclear Ban Forum and the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW in Vienna and continues to strongly advocate for the Canadian government to sign the TPNW.
Dr. Paul Sherman
Paul Sherman is Chair and professor in the Community Social Services Program at the University of Guelph-Humber, Toronto, Canada. He is also founding director of the university’s Soka Education Research Initiative on Global Citizenship (SERC-GC). Prior to entering higher education as a profession, Paul worked in various roles as a clinician and senior administrator in non-profit community mental health settings for over 30 years. He earned his undergraduate honours degree in psychology from York University (Toronto), his postgraduate diploma in child assessment and counselling from the University of Toronto, and his PhD in Education and Social Justice at the University of Lancaster, U.K.
His main research interests include soka education and global citizenship education, and his research on these and other topics has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Paul has taught undergraduate level courses on global citizenship at the University of Guelph-Humber and Soka University Japan, and has developed and led short-term study abroad courses to Sweden, Japan, Italy, and Austria.
Rooj Ali
Rooj Ali is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, studying Peace Conflict & Justice, History, and Political Science. She has taken part in various events and projects including the launch of Reverse the Trend: Save Our Planet, Save Our People where she is a coordinator, and most recently its mentorship program in the role of lead mentor. Rooj is a member of the Canadian Council of Young Feminists and previously held an internship as a Manitoba High School Liaison in Senator Marilou McPhedran’s office and attended the Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit as a Canadian delegate. She has attended both the first and second meetings of states parties at the United Nations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and used her attendance to raise engagement from other young people.
Rooj co-led her city's successful Campaign for the ICAN Cities Appeal in 2021 and completed a summer internship with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada. She was recently awarded the Kim Phúc Award for Youth Peace Leadership by the Voice of Women for Peace, and later joined the organization in part of their 200 km walk for peace across Nova Scotia.
Marianne Cerilli
Marianne Cerilli works at the intersection of education, community development, and politics. Her social innovation tools on three themes; The Politics of Unity, Healing for Change and Community as Classroom, bring trauma informed, conflict resolution skills and practices to help us move away from oppressive, colonial procedures and structures in organizations of all kinds.
Before she was 30, Marianne was a sports, health and recreation champion, led a youth work experience program with the Manitoba government, was a high school guidance counsellor and elected MLA. Since three terms at the Manitoba legislature, she has taught at U Winnipeg, U Manitoba and Red River College, was an advocate/mentor at an inner-city women’s center and community animator at Winnipeg Social Planning Council. Her peace activism has ranged from regulating violent video games, reducing military budgets, and ethical journalism in war coverage.