Nuclear Futures Fellows
Get to know the second cohort of the Nuclear Futures Fellows:
Through our partnership with Horizon 2045, we are proud to support a fellowship program that builds upon our practice of collaboration and bold action-taking together: the Nuclear Futures Fellowship. Through the Nuclear Futures Fellowship, Horizon 2045 supports an important piece of Ploughshares’ new nuclear field building efforts, co-creating programs and experiences designed to instill long-term thinking, systems thinking, and cross issue awareness and collaboration as foundational field-wide capacities.
The Nuclear Futures Fellowship is designed for emerging and established leaders in the nuclear field who want to develop new and practical skills and qualifications to meet the needs of a dramatically changing global and political landscape. This fellowship focuses on navigating the field through today’s challenges while simultaneously exploring future opportunities to mitigate nuclear threats. Using Horizon 2045 tools, and frameworks such as strategic foresight, fellows will investigate levers of change in the nuclear field and use strategic scenarios to explore alternative futures of a world free of the nuclear threat.
Get to know the second cohort below.
Meet the alumni of the first cohort here.
2025 Nuclear Futures Fellows
Ali Alkis
Secretary General
Black Sea Women in Nuclear Network (BSWN)
Ali Alkis
Secretary General
Black Sea Women in Nuclear Network (BSWN)
Ali Alkis is a nuclear security professional and PhD candidate based in Türkiye, specializing in nuclear security, nonproliferation, and international security policy. He serves as a Junior Associate Fellow at the NATO Defense College’s Research Division, where he engages in research, conferences, and strategic dialogues alongside emerging leaders and scholars. Ali is also the Secretary General of the Black Sea Women in Nuclear Network (BSWN), actively advancing regional collaboration and diversity in
the nuclear field.
As the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Emerging Nuclear Security Leader and the WINS Ambassador to Türkiye, Ali plays a leading role in addressing threats such as nuclear terrorism and nuclear piracy. He is a member of Harvard University’s Ukraine Nuclear Security Working Group under the Managing the Atom (MTA) program, contributing to policy research on regional and global nuclear challenges. He also serves as the Gender Champion of the OdCNP within the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy initiative. Previously, Ali was a Nuclear Scholar in the UK’s Nuclear Security Culture Program at King’s College London. He is widely published on nuclear policy, international security, and nuclear security, as well as Turkish foreign policy, and his public engagement efforts aim to raise awareness and promote informed dialogue on nuclear issues worldwide.
Magritte Gordaneer
Program Manager
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Magritte Gordaneer
Program Manager
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Magritte Gordaneer is the Program Manager of the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program at PSR. She has over seven years of experience in campaigning for nuclear disarmament. She was named one of fifteen UN Youth Champions for Disarmament in 2024 by the UNDOA out of over 1000 applicants from 128 countries. Before joining PSR, Magritte completed policy and research internships with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons as well as the Forum on the Arms Trade and Arms Control Association. Magritte was also Program Coordinator of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada for three years. She served as Policy Co-Coordinator of Youth for TPNW, and still dedicates much of her work to engaging more young people in the work of nuclear disarmament and abolition. Her motivation for nuclear disarmament work lies in her experiences learning from survivors of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima. Magritte holds a bachelor’s degree with first-class honors in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and dual minors in History and Social Justice Studies from McGill University.
Molly Hurley
Atomic Terrain Artist-in-Residence
Bombshelltoe Policy x Arts Collective
Molly Hurley
Atomic Terrain Artist-in-Residence
Bombshelltoe Policy x Arts Collective
Molly Hurley holds an MFA in Community Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BS in Chemistry from Rice University. Her interdisciplinary background bridges art, science, and activism, with experience in advocacy, philanthropy, and media through roles with organizations like Beyond the Bomb, Women Cross DMZ, and Daisy Alliance. As Artist-in-Residence with Bombshelltoe Policy x Arts Collective and Youth Advisor to The Prospect Hill Foundation’s Nuclear Committee, she explores innovative ways to fuse cultural production with geopolitical discourse.
Molly’s critical analyses of pop culture’s ties to national security have been published in Inkstick Media and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, reflecting her commitment to democratizing complex issues through accessible narratives. Her work centers on empowering youth, leveraging new media, and fostering creative engagement to advance peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
Toya Jackson
Program Officer
Nuclear Threat Initiative
Toya Jackson
Program Officer
Nuclear Threat Initiative
Toya Jackson serves as a program officer with NTI’s Global Nuclear Policy Program (GNPP). In this role, she supports NTI’s efforts to reduce global nuclear risks and proliferation, focusing on regional and nuclear security issues in Asia and the Global South, as well as U.S. nuclear policy and arms control.
Previously, she served as a program coordinator and Japan specialist in the Washington, DC, office of the East-West Center (EWC), a non-profit organization providing research and analysis of issues mutually impacting the United States and the Indo-Pacific region. Prior to EWC, she served as a diplomatic assistant in the political department of the Embassy of Japan in the United States, where she was responsible for monitoring security and foreign policy developments in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East
from 2018-2022.
Toya is a recipient of the 2023 Boren Fellowship and studied Mandarin Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan from 2023-2024. She is completing her master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy (MPAP) at American University. She speaks English, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese.
Shizuka Kuramitsu
Research Assistant
Arms Control Association
Shizuka Kuramitsu
Research Assistant
Arms Control Association
Shizuka Kuramitsu is a research assistant at the Arms Control Association, where she assists ACA’s policy team on research on key nuclear arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament-related issues, including multilateral nonproliferation and disarmament agreements. She reports on these issues for ACA’s monthly publication, Arms Control Today.
Previously, Shizuka worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) as well as a Graduate Professional for the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Space Security Programmes at United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
She holds a masters in nonproliferation and terrorism studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She is originally from Hiroshima, Japan.
Kirsten Mundt
Organizational Development Specialist
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kirsten Mundt
Organizational Development Specialist
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kirsten is a Strategy and Organizational Development Specialist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Adjunct Faculty in the PhD program in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership at Southwestern College, and sits on the Advisory Board of Creative Santa Fe.
As a strategic partner for organizations and communities seeking people-centered and sustainable transformation, she taught in tribal colleges, research universities, and treatment centers, managed community programs, and created evaluation frameworks for measuring impact. Currently she leads strategic planning and theory of change processes for scientists and senior leaders at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In all environments, her work fosters relational conditions for thinking out of the box and generating alignment for collective imagination, action, and purpose.
She earned a PhD in American Studies from UNM, and is certified in Strategic Foresight, International Program Evaluation, and Mediation.
Hao Nan
Researcher
Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
Hao Nan
Researcher
Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
Hao Nan is a Researcher with the East Asia Studies Program at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi, the UAE. He previously served at East Asian intergovernmental organizations such as the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (for China, Japan and Republic of Korea) in Seoul and the ASEAN-China Centre in Beijing.
He was a Chinese youth delegate to the Youth 20 Summit (the G20 Summit’s official youth engagement group) and the Young Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), where he contributed to policy deliverables on digitalization, innovation, and economic diplomacy. Most recently, he was a fellow (2024-2025) with the Arms Control Negotiation Academy.
Hao holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, under the Li Ka Shing Foundation Scholarship. He also has double bachelor’s degrees in English (oriented to International Studies) and Diplomatic Studies.
Emma Sandifer
Program Coordinator
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Emma Sandifer
Program Coordinator
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Emma Sandifer is the program coordinator at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Council for a Livable World. In this capacity, she works to educate Members of Congress and their staffs on critical nuclear weapon and national security related issues. She is the creator and author of the Congressional Nucleus, the Center’s hill-focused newsletter which provides Congressional staff with nuclear policy news and legislative updates.
Emma holds a master’s degree in international affairs from GWU’s Elliott School of International Affairs
and a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University.
Maverick-Peter Seda
Coordinator
Reverse The Trend Pacific
Maverick-Peter Seda
Coordinator
Reverse The Trend Pacific
Maverick-Peter Seda is a youth advocate from the Solomon Islands, currently studying for a Diploma in Information Technology at the University of the South Pacific, Solomon Islands Campus. He is a Christian and a proud member of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, which continues to shape his values of peace, service, and integrity. Maverick-Peter serves as the Pacific Coordinator for Reverse the Trend Pacific—a youth-led initiative that focuses on nuclear disarmament, climate justice, and peacebuilding in our region. He works closely with young people, local
councils, and community leaders to raise awareness about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Using art advocacy, digital storytelling, and community dialogue, Maverick-Peter aims to empower Pacific youth to speak up on global peace and security issues from our unique Indigenous and regional perspectives. Over the years, he has been involved in community development, election observation, voter education, and humanitarian response work. Maverick-Peter strongly believes youth voices should not just be heard—but lead. Through the Ploughshares Fellowship, Maverick-Peter is excited to grow, learn, and connect with global advocates to strengthen platforms for Pacific youth leadership and a peaceful, nuclear-free future.