Please see speaker biographies for the Women for a Just Peace – in Palestine, Israel and at home below. 

Dr. Amal Elsana Alhjooj is an Associate Professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work and the Founding Executive Director of Promoting Leadership for Empowerment, Development, and Justice (PLEDJ), a non‐profit advancing community‐driven social change. Born and raised in Israel, Amal is a Bedouin Palestinian feminist and lifelong activist who has dedicated over three decades to advancing gender equality, Indigenous rights, and inclusive community organizing across the Middle East and Canada. Her work bridges academic research and grassroots action, focusing on empowerment, equity, and social justice.

Amal’s memoir, Hope Is a Woman’s Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel (Sutherland House Books, 2024), offers a powerful personal narrative of resilience and leadership. The book was a finalist for the Concordia University First Book Prize (2025) and a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Mavis Gallant Prize for Non‐Fiction (2025).

Her accolades include the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2024), inclusion in Genius: 100 Visionaries of the Future (2017), the New Israel Fund Human Rights Award (2013), and the Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East (2011). In 2005, she was nominated as part of the 1000 PeaceWomen initiative for the Nobel Peace Prize. And she has just been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue.

Amal’s scholarship and community leadership have influenced social work education, public policy, and community engagement practices internationally. Through her teaching, writing, and organizing, she continues to inspire dialogue, foster cross‐cultural understanding, and advance movements for justice, dignity, and collective empowerment worldwide.

Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, a dual American‐Israeli citizen, helped establish Women Wage Peace in 2014 while living in Israel. In those early years of the movement, she worked closely with her friend Vivian Silver to create robust language for WWP’s white papers, newsletters, fundraising appeals, grant applications, press releases, and other public‐facing reports from the field including presentations to the Women’s Caucus of the US Congress and for the 62nd UN Commission on the Status of Women, at which she represented WWP. Now retired from congregational life, Donna has opted to test her rabbinic mettle as a resident in hospital chaplaincy while continuing to speak, write, and mobilize for WWP as it continues to work for a viable future for all children in Israel/Palestine. She also continues a long‐standing commitment to speaking and writing on behalf of Jewish Women International’s Clergy Task Force on Domestic Abuse, finding that the degree of personal security for women and children is mirrored in every national conception of security. 

Lori Wilkinson is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Migration Futures. Her applied research in migration and refugee resettlement has instigated policy changes in Canada that have facilitated the successful resettlement of thousands of refugees. Her work on youth migration was a catalyst for policy reform that continues to influence how Canadian and international governments aid refugees. She is an active volunteer in the migration sector and was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in November 2024.

With ancestral roots in post‐colonial Punjab and Kashmir, Somia is a leading planner who has developed a pioneering practice in engagement, conflict transformation, and negotiating space for those whose voices are often unheard or ignored. Rooted in the work of impact assessment, Somia founded Narratives, an award‐winning planning and design firm that emphasizes human‐centric, trauma‐informed story work, lived experience, and creating space for celebration of ancestral identity. Somia is also the founder of Kahanee and Ravayat, a non‐profit organization that amplifies storytelling and dialogue for peacebuilding.

Somia was recently inducted into the Canadian Institute of Planners’ esteemed College of Fellows, the highest honour for a planner in Canada. Gajarah, her debut novel, is a powerful testament to the power of storytelling in fostering resilience rooted in identity and ancestral strength. 

Website: www.somiasadiq.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/somiasadiq/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somiasadiq/

Frances has worked for over three decades as a family therapist, educator, and community development facilitator in First Nations and urban social services. She has taught psychology courses at colleges and universities, and has delivered workshops and presentations at conferences in Canada and the States. 

Consistent with the principles of popular education, Frances always begins by inviting community members into the story circle to share stories from their own life experiences and those of their ancestors. She is smitten by the capacity of personal storytelling to create safe, empathic, and celebratory spaces; to connect our hearts and minds through listening deeply to ourselves and to each other; and to explore solutions to critical social problems. She believes that it is our own stories that best guide us in our efforts to create a sweeter and more just world, not the stories others tell about us. 

Frances is a co‐founder of a non‐profit organization, Community Works Manitoba, and is certified as a digital story facilitator.

Esther is a retired social worker and professor of social work at universities in both Israel and Canada. Her practice, teaching, and research have been in the areas of anti‐racism, cross‐cultural relations, immigration and refugee issues. Esther founded and chaired the Affirmative Action/Educational Equity Committee at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Social Work. This helped to ensure that First Nations, immigrants, refugees and students with disabilities were supported at the university. She also set up Qualtrica, a non‐profit organization, for graduate students to gain employment experience in cross‐cultural work and conduct research in intercultural activities. For her community work, Esther received the University of Manitoba Outreach Award. She is also a co‐founder of Women Wage Peace Winnipeg.

Loraine is a retired United Church of Canada minister. She continues to teach at United Church theological schools, including Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, which honours the dual path of Traditional Indigenous Teaching and Christianity to educate Indigenous United Church ministers. Loraine is trained in conflict resolution and Compassionate Listening. She is passionate about interfaith relations and works with organizations that build bridges across cultural and religious diversity, including Women Wage Peace Winnipeg. Her interfaith work was recognized in 2024 when she received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding.