Dr. Melba Padilla Maggay

Dr. Melba Padilla Maggay is a prolific writer, social anthropologist and activist and a much sought-after international speaker and consultant on culture and social development issues, particularly the interface of religion, culture and development. Dr. Maggay is President of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC) a research and training organization engaged in development, missiology and cross-cultural studies aimed at social transformation. She is also President of Micah Global, an alliance of more than 800 faith-based development organizations worldwide. She was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, served as Northrup Visiting Professor at Hope College, Michigan and was a Visiting Lecturer at All Nations Christian College in England. She holds a Ph.D. in Philippine Studies, a M.A. in English Literature, and a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Philippines.  She is a three-time top-prize winner in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, the most prestigious literary prize in the Philippines. As a social activist, she had been cited for her outstanding leadership in organizing the religious movements, particularly the evangelical Protestant presence, at the EDSA barricades during the Philippine ‘People Power’ uprising in February 1986.  Dr. Maggay has sat on numerous governing boards of both local and international research and faith-based organizations, notably the International Advisory Council of the Knowledge Centre for Religion and Development in the Netherlands, a tripartite partnership among ICCO, CORDAID and the Institute for Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. Likewise, she was a founding board member of the International Life and Peace Institute, a peace research organization based in Uppsala, Sweden and also on the boards of the Bible Society, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in the Philippines. She has long been associated with International Fellowship of Mission Theologians (INFEMIT) and served in the International Council of Interserve.