John Elliott was a career US Foreign Service officer until 2021, serving as a diplomat in the Middle East, South America and multiple domestic assignments with the State Department.

He studied fine arts, international affairs, and Arabic at Ohio University and Harvard University, and Portuguese and Arabic at the US Foreign Service Institute. He also served for four years in the US Army Reserves in a Military Intelligence unit, was a language school director in Venezuela, and a magazine photojournalist in Mexico and Guatemala. He is presently Executive Director for AidWEST Humanitarian Missions (www.aidwest.org). Elliott continues a passion in photography and his travels are documented at www.thehumanpulse.com/blog