Peter R. Elson, PhD has been Senior Research Associate in the Institute for Nonprofit Studies at Mount Royal University since the fall of 2008. Peter completed his MSc in Voluntary Sector Organization at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2002 and previously spent fifteen years as a nonprofit executive director. He completed his PhD in Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto in September, 2008. A book based on his PhD thesis, High Ideals and Noble Intentions: Voluntary Sector-Government Relations in Canada was published in 2011 by the University of Toronto Press.

His research focuses on the long-term analysis of voluntary sector-provincial government relations; and mapping the nature and impact of social enterprises across Canada. He completed an initial survey of social enterprises in British Columbia and Alberta in 2010 with Peter Hall from Simon Fraser University that has lead to similar surveys being conducted in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Peter is also English Language editor for ANSERJ, the journal for the Association for Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, and is active on numerous provincial and national committees related to the nonprofit sector in Canada.

He is currently editing a new book, Funding Policies and the Nonprofit Sector in Western Canada.