Ellen Lindeen has worked as an educator, academic, and writer throughout her professional career. She credits her lifelong participation in the Episcopal Church with leading her to peace and justice work. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s degree in Literature from Northwestern University, and a Certificate of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Most recently, she taught at Waubonsee Community College for 22 years, retiring in 2018, as Professor Emeritus.

In addition to teaching English, Composition, and Shakespeare, from 2009-2018, she created and offered the interdisciplinary courses, Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights & Social Justice. Her work in the field of Peace Studies includes: a Fulbright-Hays Grant to study Gandhi and the teaching of non­ violence in India in summer 2008; graduate work in International Law and Human Rights through Arcadia University, Philadelphia, in Arusha, Tanzania in summer 201O; teaching the winter term at Canterbury Christ Church University in England in 2012; volunteering in post-Katrina New Orleans in 2007; serving children in Haiti in summer 2013; and graduate work in Refugee and Immigration Rights through the University of Massachusetts-Boston in Quito, Ecuador in summer 2015.

In 2018, she represented the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and the Peace & Justice Studies Association on the FOR Delegation to Puerto Rico. She authored the chapter, “Film as a Force for Peace,” for the 2015 book Using Popular Culture to Teach Peace, and she has published articles in Truthout, Counterpunch, Huntington News, Common Dreams, The Peace Studies Journal, The Portland Alliance, and English Journal, among others. She has served on the boards of the Peace & Justice Studies Association and Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and currently serves as a representative on The Consultation, the consortium of progressive organizations in the Episcopal Church

In 2020, 2021 and 2023, she was delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She is the convener of the Peace & Justice Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and the chair of Peace & Justice Committee of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Barrington. She lives with her husband, Ric, in the Chicagoland area and they have three grown children, and one grandchild. She looks forward to serving another term with Fellowship of Reconciliation.