Board member biographies

BIOGRAPHIES: CANADIAN PUGWASH BOARD OF DIRECTORS – 2025 to 2027

Chair: CESAR JARAMILLO
Cesar Jaramillo is Executive Director of SANE Policy Institute. He is former Executive Director at Project Ploughshares, where his focus areas included nuclear disarmament, outer space security and conventional weapons control. As an international civil society representative, Cesar has addressed, among others, the UN General Assembly First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), the UN Conference on Disarmament, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), and states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Cesar attended the series of conferences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons that preceded negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as well as the negotiations themselves. He has given guest lectures and presentations at academic institutions such as New York University, the National Law University in New Delhi, the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, and the University of Toronto. An occasional columnist on matters of disarmament and international security, Cesar graduated from the University of Waterloo with an MA in global governance and has bachelor’s degrees in honours political science and in journalism. Prior to joining Project Ploughshares, Cesar held a fellowship at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

Vice-Chair: PEGGY MASON

Since June of 2014 Peggy Mason has been the President of the Rideau Institute, an independent think tank with a mandate to help revitalize Canada’s peacekeeping, diplomatic peacemaking and peacebuilding roles in the world, through inclusive multilateralism, strengthening the UN capacity for conflict prevention and peaceful conflict resolution and the progressive enhancement of international law. Rideau Institute publishes the Ceasefire blog.

Her distinguished career highlights diplomatic and specialist expertise in the field of international security, with a particular emphasis on the United Nations, where she served as Canada’s Ambassador for Disarmament from 1989 to 1995. She has led Canadian delegations to NPT and BWC Review Conferences, chaired UN expert groups on arms control verification and small arms regulation and served for two terms on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament. In 2013 she received an achievement award from Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention for her commitment to a nuclear-weapons-free world.

As Vice-Chair of the CPG Peggy Mason co-organized with the North American Arctic Defence and Security Network a series of webinars spanning Arctic security issues writ large and co-edited an ebook of the series, published in May 2021, entitled Beyond the Cooperation-Conflict Conundrum Proceedings of an Arctic Security Webinar Series.

Secretary: ROBIN COLLINS

Robin Collins has supported disarmament, global governance, alternative defence, peace and peacekeeping for over 30 years. From 1996-2002 he was a board member and later Chair of Mines Action Canada, the antipersonnel landmine ban coalition. He was primary author of MAC’s 2001 position paper on cluster bombs, and led the establishment of a national mine action technology competition for engineering students at Canadian universities. Collins has been involved since 1996 in nuclear weapon abolition advocacy through CNANW, where he is past Co-Chair and current Steering Committee member. He is Secretary of Canadian Pugwash Group where he has presented on NATO nuclear policy, and peacekeeping success and failure. He was a Board member of the World Federalist Movement – Canada for two decades,  focussed on UN peacekeeping, UN Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS), Responsibility to Protect (R2P), the ICC and progressive UN reform. Collins has worked within the Group of 78 to draft statements on arms trade policy, and an alternative security policy, The Shift to Sustainable Peace and Common Security. He has a B.A. in political science from Carleton University. Now retired, for the last ~40 years he worked primarily for technology companies that built a variety of telephony, internet and microscope technologies. He writes regular book reviews on environmental, evolution and climate issues for The Canadian Field-Naturalist journal, and has a substack blog called Escape From Certainty.

Director: BEV TOLLEFSON DELONG

Beverley J. Tollefson Delong is a graduate in law from Queen’s University. After practicing law for 11 years, she began directing her time to public education and advocacy concerning the risks posed by nuclear weapons with attention to the laws affecting the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. She is a co-founder and Executive Member of Ploughshares Calgary Society (formerly Project Ploughshares Calgary). She served as President of Lawyers for Social Responsibility from 1991 to 2010. In the 1990s, Bev also participated in the Steering Committees for the Mines Action Canada and the World Court Campaign (Canada).

Bev served as Chairperson of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons from 1998 until April 2019. She has served on the Board of Canadian Pugwash Group and has been on the organizational committee of several major conferences. She also participates in the Steering Committee of Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, a project of Canadian Pugwash.

Bev has been honoured with the Calgary YMCA Peace Award, the Alberta Centennial Medal and with the Annual Achievement Award from Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Director: WALTER DORN

Walter Dorn is Professor of Defence Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and the Canadian Forces College(CFC). He teaches officers of rank major to brigadier-general from Canada and about 20 other countries. He specializes in arms control, peace operations, just war theory, international criminal law, treaty verification and enforcement, and the United Nations. As an “operational professor” he participates in field missions and assists international organizations. For instance, he was a UN Electoral Officer for the 1999 referendum in East Timor and a Visiting Professional with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2010. He also served as a consultant with the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations, including in 2014 on the Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping. In 2020, during sabbatical leave, Dr. Dorn was with the UN as a “Technology Innovation Expert” exploring technologies for testing, piloting and employing in UN field operations. He served three terms as CPG Chair and has served on the Board since 1995.

Director: ELLEN JUDD

Ellen Judd is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Manitoba and Visiting Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on political anthropology, political economy, gender and human rights. Her ethnographic work is concentrated in studies of sociocultural change in contemporary rural and urban China. She was educated at Queen’s University, the University of British Columbia, Fudan University, Beijing University and the University of Cambridge, and has held visiting appointments at Sun Yatsen University, Chongqing University, Columbia University and the London School of Economics. She is the author of Gender and Power in Rural North China, a special issue of Anthropologica on War and Peace, and numerous other publications, most recently the co-edited Cooperation in Chinese Communities: Morality and Practice. In 2006 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2012-13 she served as President of the Canadian Anthropology Society. Ellen Judd has been involved in the peace movement since the Vietnam War era and in the disarmament movement of the early 1980s while in England. More recently she has served on the Board of Project Peacemakers, the Winnipeg affiliate of Project Ploughshares, and on the National Board of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. She has been increasingly concerned with the renewed arms race, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the US pivot to Asia. Continuing wider concerns with disarmament, she finds her scholarly research converging with her concern for peace. Her current direction draws upon China’s cultural politics, the legacy of China’s long century (1839-1949) of devastating war and the political economy of contemporary China to identify and examine resources for peaceful coexistence. She finds the Russell-Einstein Manifesto regrettably all too pertinent at the present time.

Director: PAUL MEYER

Paul Meyer is a Senior Advisor to ICT4Peace and a Fellow of the Outer Space Institute. Prior to assuming his current appointments in 2011, Mr. Meyer had a 35-year career with the Canadian Foreign Service. Mr. Meyer had diplomatic assignments in Oslo, Moscow, Brussels (NATO), Washington, Tokyo and from 2003-2007 in Geneva where he served as Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the Conference on Disarmament. At the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s HQ, Meyer held a variety of positions including Director General for International Security (1998-2001) and Director General for Security and Intelligence (2007-2010). Throughout his work, Meyer has sought to promote international security by means of creative diplomacy. He currently is teaching a course on diplomacy at SFU’s School for International Studies and is engaged in research and writing on issues of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, outer space security and international cyber security. Paul Meyer became a member of the Canadian Pugwash Group in 2011 and has served as CPG’s Vice-Chair (2013-17) and Chair (2017 -2021).

Director: TARIQ RAUF

Tariq Rauf is a Vienna-based expert and consultant on nuclear governance matters. He has served as Head of Verification and Security Policy Coordination, Office reporting to the Director General,International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Alternate Head of the IAEA Delegation to NPT Conferences and PrepComs; IAEA Liaison and Point-of-Contact for the Trilateral Initiative, the Plutonium Management andDisposition Agreement, the Fissile Material Control Treaty, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, UNSCR 1540 Committee and (UN) Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force; Coordinator of IAEA Multilateral Approaches to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, and IAEA Forum on Experience of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones Relevant for the Middle East.

Also, former: •Member, Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament established by the Foreign Minister of Japan. •Consulting Advisor for policy and outreach to the Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). •Director, Disarmament and Arms Control, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. •Member of Canada’s NPT Delegation.•Advisor, Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committees, Parliament of Canada, •Director, International Organizations and Nonproliferation Programme, Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute for International Studies. •Senior Research Associate, Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament.

Education: University of the Panjab (Pakistan); University of London: London School of Economics; Political Science (LSE) and King’s College; Carleton University and the University of Toronto in Canada where he was the Ford Foundation Fellow in Dual Expertise: International Security/Arms Control and Soviet-East European Studies.

Director: SHANE ROBERTS

Shane Roberts is a futurist, former intelligence analyst and life-long educational activist dedicated to engaging the public and experts in shaping prospects for a better future. Shane left the public service in 2013, after serving a decade as a futurist for emergency preparedness. He has given over 75 talks in Canada, the US and Europe to spies, scientists, scholars, specialists and students from over 40 countries representing governments, universities, think-tanks and our future. Shane continues to give talks to experts, NGOs, officials, and the public on global trends, natural and anthropogenic risks to humanity, and the work of the United Nations.

Before his work in futures studies, Shane was in foreign intelligence for two decades – half of that time supporting the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat for the Prime Minister and upper echelons of government. An award-winning analyst, he participated strategic assessments of diplomatic, economic, military and technological issues.

Shane is a member of several NGOs involved in science and global affairs: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research, the Canadian Pugwash Group, and the United Nations Association (UNA). In the UNA for over 35 years, he has served as a Branch President, Treasurer, newsletter editor, and on its national Board of Directors. As a member of CPG’s Board of Directors, he has served as its Secretary since 2017.

He immigrated to Canada in 1968 as a draft resister to what he and his family saw as an illegal war.

Director: ERIKA SIMPSON

Erika Simpson (PhD and MA, University of Toronto) is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Western University, London, Canada and the President of the Canadian Peace Research Association (CPRA). Her research interests are in international security and foreign and defence policy, particularly Afghanistan, arms control, disarmament, IR theory, NATO, nuclear proliferation, nuclear waste, peacekeeping and the UN. She is the author of NATO and the Bomb (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001) and her articles have appeared in leading journals including the Brown Journal of World Politics; International Journal; In Victus Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice; Peace Magazine; Peace Research; Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice; and Policy Options. She is a national syndicated columnist for the Postmedia Network, Canada’s largest digital and newspaper chain, and a frequent commentator for Canada’s foreign policy magazine The Hill-Times, as well as Asia’s Urdu News, Canada’s CTV Television News and Russia’s Sputnik News. She serves as a director on the board of the Canadian Pugwash Group; an associate editor for Peace Review; a senior advisor for the Rideau Institute; an invited consultant for the Nuclear Abolition Forum; and a peer reviewer for the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health. Formerly she was an Alton Jones Fellow; a Barton Fellow; a Liu Institute Visiting Fellow; a NATO Research Fellow; and the vice-chair and treasurer of Pugwash Canada. In 2015, the Voice of Women–Canada awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award for her writing on peace-related issues. At the University of Western Ontario, she teaches undergraduate, MA, and PhD students. She is a Canadian citizen and a long-time resident of London, Ontario, Canada.

Director emeritus: METTA SPENCER

Metta Spencer Professor emeritus of sociology, University of Toronto. She coordinated a program in peace and conflict studies at the Mississauga campus until retiring in 1997. She served several terms as president of Science for Peace. Professor Spencer’s introductory sociology textbook, Foundations of Modern Sociology, was published in ten editions in the United States and Canada and, according to one informed estimate, was read—at least in part—by over a million persons worldwide, mainly university students.
Another of her books, Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society, explores the way serial dramas can sometimes create intense parasocial bonds with fictional characters that can influence a whole culture more powerfully than education or advertising. She advocates the development of well-crafted soap operas to improve a society’s prevailing ideology about war and politics. Spencer’s book, The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, was based on 28 years of interviewing prominent Soviet and Russian political figures, Eastern Europeans, and Western peace activists. Over 200 of the interview transcripts and many of the voice recordings are accessible at: RussianPeaceAndDemocracy.Com. She has also edited a number of other books on peace and conflict issues. See her web site mettaspencer.com. Spencer is the founding and continuing editor of Peace Magazine. Most issues include transcripts of an interview with a prominent activist or influential person. See the archive at peacemagazine.org. Peace Magazine is accessible by subscription in print or online: https://www.pressreader.com/canada/peace-magazine/.

In 2018 Spencer organized a two-day conference at the University of Toronto where 100 participants listed 25 proposals that would, if implemented, vastly reduce the risk of six grave global threats: war and weapons (especially nuclear); global warming; famine; pandemics; radioactive contamination; and cyber risks. This “Platform for Survival” could be adopted by many different activists as a common program. Intending to promote such adoption, Spencer has created a website, tosavetheworld.ca, as a meeting place for people working against these threats. It offers an events calendar for activists and researchers to publicize public activities anywhere in the world.

“Project Save the World,” has a Youtube channel, Youtube.com/c/tosavetheworld. A series of educational videos are accessible 24/7. Several days each week, Spencer discusses current global issues with one or more experts. As of early November 2021 there are 368 one-hour-long shows in the series. People can post articles, comments, and replies about the shows, the six global threats, and three policy sectors of society: governance, economy, and civil society.

Director: DR. SAM VAEZ

Sam Vaez is an expert in international security, conflict prevention, nuclear deterrence, and non-nuclear proliferation. Central to his work are deterrence theory, military and geopolitical strategy, and escalation risk management. He has extensive leadership experience in both higher education and innovative research, spanning over 15 years. He has presented papers at dozens of international conferences on conflict prevention, international arms control, peacebuilding, and the Iranian nuclear program. He was previously a professor at the University of Tehran and taught at the University of Leeds. He has taught various courses on international relations, foreign and security policy, with a focus on Russia, Britain, and the regions of Eurasia and the Middle East. He has authored books and peer- reviewed publications. He holds a PhD in international relations from the University of Leeds, UK. Dr. Vaez engages with policy communities and NGOs and has worked across academia and industry to translate research into strategic planning in both academic and corporate settings, as well as in emerging innovative research and technologies. He has initiated several conferences, serving as chair of the foreign and security debates, and has participated in UN peacekeeping and arms control meetings. His current research focuses on the implications of America’s policy shift in extended nuclear deterrence, as well as the evolving relations among Russia, China, and North Korea, with Iran as a key player.

Director: DR. JEREMY WHITLOCK

Jeremy Whitlock, PhD, FCNS is a private consultant (Founder and Principal, Ottertail Consulting), with 30 years experience in nuclear non-proliferation, reactor physics, and stakeholder engagement. He recently returned to Canada following 8 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a Senior Technical Advisor and Section Head in the Department of Safeguards. His responsibilities included management of the Safeguards Concepts and Approaches section, and preparations for safeguarding advanced reactor and relatedfuel-cycle technologies (Safeguards by Design). Prior to this, Dr. Whitlock spent 22 years at Chalk River Laboratories in Canada as Manager of the R and D program in Non-proliferation and Safeguards, and as a reactor physicist in CANDU and research reactor design.  Dr. Whitlock received a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Waterloo (1988), and an M.Eng. and PhD in Reactor Physics from McMaster University (1995). He is a Past-president, Fellow, and former  Communications Director of the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS), a member and former Board Director of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), a member of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), and a Board Director of the Canadian Pugwash Group (CPG). He is an author and speaker on nuclear issues and an adjunct professor at McMaster University, currently teaching a course in “Nuclear Technology and Society”. Dr. Whitlock lives in Stratford, Ontario, and feels that canoes are the closest humans have come to inventing a perfect machine.