Nuclear Abolitionist Ira Helfand Named Inaugural Activist-in-Residence for Ellsberg Initiative

Academics
Dr. Ira Helfand

The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy has named Ira Helfand, experienced nuclear abolitionist, a skilled organizer, and a physician its inaugural activist-in-residence. Hefland will visit the University of Massachusetts Amherst from Monday, Feb. 26 through Friday, March 1 for a week of training in antinuclear activism. 

During his stay, Helfand will visit with departments and classes, offering guest lectures and holding office hours; deliver a public lecture; and host a public workshop on anti-nuclear activism. A full schedule is as follows.

Activist-in-Residence Schedule

Monday, Feb. 26

  • Noon: Lunch and lecture on "Rethinking Deterrance" with Department of History 

Tuesday, Feb. 27

  • 10:30 a.m.: "Talk the Talk" radio interview with Bill Newman and Buz Eisenberg for WHMP 101.5FM
  • Noon: Graduate student lunch with the Department of History
  • 7 p.m.: Lecture, "The Growing Danger of Nuclear War and What We Can Do to Prevent It," ILC S331

Wednesday, Feb. 28

  • 9:05 a.m.: Classroom visit to History 201: Imperial America

Thursday, Feb. 29

  • 2:30 p.m.: Classroom visit to Honors 224H: America at War
  • 7 p.m.: Workshop on "What Activists Can Do to Prevent Nuclear War," ILC S331

Friday, March 1

  • 4 p.m.: Campus activism focus session

Hefland represented ICAN at the Oslo and Nayarit Conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear War, and in September of 2015 he addressed a special session of the United Nations General Assembly.  In May of 2016 he chaired the session on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear war at the United Nations Open Ended Working Group meeting in Geneva that led to the successful negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the summer of 2017, and on Sept. 20, 2017 he represented IPPNW at the signing ceremony for the Treaty.

He has published studies on the medical consequences of nuclear war in the world’s leading medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, and the World Medical Journal, and has lectured widely in the United States, and in India, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, South Africa, Israel, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, and throughout Europe on the health effects of nuclear weapons. He represented PSR and IPPNW at the Nobel ceremonies in Oslo in December 2009, honoring President Obama, and presented their report, "Nuclear Famine: One Billion People at Risk," at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Chicago in April of 2012. A second edition was released in December 2013.

Helfand was educated at Harvard College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a former chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and President of the Medical Staff at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and  practiced as an internist and urgent care physician at Family Care Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts until his retirement in 2021.

He is the recipient of the 1997-1998 Will L. Judy Award, the 2003 O’Dwyer Award, the 2003 John Phillips Award, the 2016  Verdoorn Prize, the 2017 Distinguished  Peace Leadership Award, the 2017 Edward Barsky Award of the American Public Health Association, and the 2023 Gandhi King Ikeda Community Builders Award from the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College

He lives with his wife, Deborah Smith, a medical oncologist, in Leeds, Massachusetts.

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