Melba Padilla Maggay

Melba Padilla Maggay is a writer and a social anthropologist who uniquely combines academic expertise with a certain artistic flair and a leadership gift that brings people together for a common vision and enterprise. As a writer, she shifts easily from technical to creative writing, having won top Palanca literary prizes in English essay writing as well as in the zarzuela category of the 1998 National Centennial Literary Competition, commemorating 100 years of Philippine independence. As founder and longtime director of Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC), she had been cited for her outstanding leadership in organizing the evangelical Protestant presence at the EDSA barricades during the February People Power Uprising in 1986.

Maggay is a specialist in intercultural communication. She was Research Fellow on the subject at the University of Cambridge under the auspices of Tyndale House, applying it to the question of culture and theology. She has lectured on this and other cross-cultural issues worldwide, including a stint as Northrup Visiting Professor at Hope College, Michigan and Visiting Lecturer at All Nations Christian College in England.

Maggay has written numerous books and articles on social, cultural and theological issues, published here and abroad. Her book, Transforming Society, was first published in England and has been translated in Spanish, Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia.

As a social anthropologist, Maggay is a sought-after resource speaker and consultant on culture, social change and development issues.

She sits in the governing boards of a number of not-for-profit groups and faith-based organizations. She was member of the Founding Board of the International Life and Peace Institute, a peace research organization based in Uppsala, Sweden (1985-1990), and of the International Christian Media Commission in the US and UK (1989-1991). She was also in the International Advisory Council for the Knowledge Centre Religion and Development. Currently, she is the President of the Micah Global Network; and she is also with the International Council of Interserve. She is also the founder and President of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC).

A frequent speaker and participant-expert in international conferences, Dr. Maggay travels widely and has had cross-cultural experience in over 40 countries in Asia and Australia, North and Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.