Mae Elise Cannon is the author of Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World (IVP, 2009). Cannon is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). She was formally the executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church located in Walnut Creek, California and also served as director of development and transformation for extension ministries at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois.

Cannon holds an M.Div. From North Park Theological Seminary, an M.B.A. from North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, and an M.A. in bioethics from Trinity International University. She is now a doctoral candidate in American History with the minor in Middle Eastern studies at the University of California – Davis focusing her dissertation on the tumultuous history of the American Protestant church in Israel and Palestine.

Most recently, she has served as consultant to the Middle East for child advocacy issues for Compassion International a Christian nonprofit committed to alleviating poverty around the world. She has spent the past six months working in areas of reconciliation and justice in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt in an attempt to bridge the gap between American Christians and the Arab Christian community in the Middle East.

Her several publications about the conflict include: Mischief Making in Palestine: American Protestant Involvement in the Holy Land from 1917 to Today and several other papers and articles which have been presented at the American Academy of Religion regional and annual conferences. In addition, her recent article A Revolution Unites: Will Interfaith Harmony be a Part of the Liberation of Egypt’s People? has been published in Prism, the official magazine of Evangelicals for Social Action (May/June 2011).

To learn more about Mae’s ministry, visit her website.