Class 25 (2026-2028)
Zhibek Toktash, Kazakhstan
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Global Studies
Nuclear Justice & Disarmament | Community-Based Policy & Victim Assistance | Bridging Grassroots and Global Policy | Youth Leadership in Peacebuilding | Peacebuilding in Nuclear-Affected Communities
Zhibek is a nuclear justice advocate from Qazaqstan with over five years of experience in program management. She focuses on advancing nuclear justice through community-centered and policy-oriented approaches, particularly with communities affected by nuclear testing. At Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Central Asia, she has led initiatives that connect research, advocacy, and policymaking.
She began her career in youth engagement and urban development, contributing to regional youth networks and co-leading the Just City initiative with Urban Forum Kazakhstan. Through this, she brought together civil society, experts, and policymakers to advance social justice in urban spaces.
Zhibek’s path into disarmament was shaped by her involvement in the Qazaq translation of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (2022) by Dr. Togzhan Kassenova. In the aftermath of the January protests in Qazaqstan and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, revisiting the country’s nuclear legacy became a turning point that deepened her commitment to peacebuilding. In 2023, she co-founded the Steppe Organization for Peace (STOP), a youth-led initiative focused on nuclear justice.
Since then, she has worked to bridge grassroots perspectives with national and international policy spaces. She has supported policy dialogue and contributed evidence-based recommendations within the Interdepartmental Working Group on nuclear legacy issues, coordinated community-based research across affected regions, and amplified the voices of frontline communities in global forums, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) meetings at the United Nations. She is also an alumna of the Youth Leader Fund for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (YLF).
Zhibek is a Rotary Peace Fellow and plans to join the MA in Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Looking ahead, she aims to strengthen her expertise in policymaking, international development, and disarmament, advancing approaches centered on communities, equity, and sustainable peace.