This website collects some of the many things I’ve written through the years, and reflects things that are of particular importance to me: contemplative prayer, scripture, poetry, art, Guatemalan history, the Ixil Maya culture, social justice, Christmas. These writings are meant for sharing, and you are most welcome to copy and use what is here if it can be useful to you or others. My life has been rich in cross-cultural experiences, and has been —and continues to be—a spiritual journey full of wonder. For all of my life I have enjoyed meeting others through their writings, and to discuss what I’ve learned. Please feel free to send me any responses you may have. See brief bio below . . .

  Elaine@ElaineDElliott.com

Brief bio

From childhood, I felt concern over the vast difference between the comfortable lives of my relatives in the United States and the poverty of the Mixtec village in Mexico where I lived much of each year. My parents, members of Wycliffe Bible Translators & Summer Institute of Linguistics, served as educators and health care workers in this village in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Graduating from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in History in 1974, I moved to Guatemala and with my husband, Steve Elliott, established a non-profit in the Guatemalan highlands. The non-profit “Ixil Fund” supported local leadership for projects in bilingual education, healthcare, micro-credit, and an export business of their distinctive weavings, As the civil war in the country continued, eventually resulting in the massacre of over 400 villages, the deaths of 200,000 and displacement of one million people, the non-profit engaged in emergency supply of clothing, food, temporary shelter, and medical care.

I translated the novel of a Mayan author, published in English as A Mayan Life. Returning in 1991 to the United States, I began working at the University of San Diego on a grant for institutionalizing diversity. I began work with Community Service-Learning in 1995 and contributed to the growth of USD’s program, particularly the integration of service in academic courses. I completed an M.A. in History at USD in 1999, focusing my thesis on the Ixil-Maya area where we had worked in Guatemala.

I became director of the USD Center for Community Service-Learning in July 2002, with emphasis on the need for social justice work as well as compassionate service and community building. USD’s program is nationally recognized for its excellence in it’s community partnerships, student leadership development, and connection between service and activism. [summary CV ]