Born in Rwanda, Marie Josée Gicali has been living in Quebec since 1998. She holds a PHD in Education from the University of Quebec in Montreal and her thesis was focused on peace education. Like many survivors of the genocide committed against the Tutsis of Rwanda, she lost a large number of family members. She is a seasoned lecturer and a civil servant at the provincial level in Quebec. She coordinates the DIPAA project (International Decade of People of African Descent) within the community organization le COFFRET. In 2019, she published On n'oublie jamais rien (Éditions Hurtubise) about her life, during and after the genocide. She is involved in violence prevention, peace education and memory transmission projects.