John Elliot, ’70“Everybody is such a specialist today, and it really takes somebody who can see the big picture and be the entrepreneur and make sure that all the pieces come together.”
This is the keen insight that 1970 Kent State University graduate John Elliot has gleaned after more than 50 years as an architect and entrepreneur. While it may have taken Elliot a few years in the field before he learned this critical piece of advice, today he and his wife, Fonda, aim to ensure Kent State architecture students can benefit from his experiences before they even graduate.
After a long and successful career, first as an architect and later as the owner of American Medical Facilities Management LLC, John and Fonda Elliot felt it was time to pay it forward. As one of the most generous donors in Kent State’s 114-year history, the Elliots have gifted the university more than $12 million to benefit the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Design Innovation and other areas of Kent State. As a result of their contributions, the building that serves as home to the college was named the Elliot Center for Architecture and Environmental Design. In addition, through the Elliots’ generosity, the college was able to establish the Elliot Program for Healthcare Design, the Elliot Professorship in Healthcare Design, the John and Fonda Elliot Endowed Visiting Professorship, the John and Fonda Elliot Student Travel Fund, the Elliot Scholars and the Elliot Family Foundation Architectural Scholarship.
When John Elliot enrolled in Kent State in the late 1960s, he was the first in his family to attend college, but that was not the only obstacle he had to overcome. He confessed that he “did terrible in math, physics and art, as most of the architecture students did,” which knocked his GPA down quite a bit. Then his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. So, he dropped out for a year, working for an engineering company and helping to take care of his mom while taking a night class at one of Kent State’s Regional Campuses to build his GPA back up. This is where he met his future wife, Fonda.
Fast forward a couple of years, he and Fonda are now married, and he returned to the Kent Campus as a full-time student while also working a full-time job. A hard-won accomplishment, John Elliot earned his degree in 1970, and to this day, he credits the support of Kent State for his success.
“Fonda and I have been very committed to giving back to Kent State because nobody does it alone,” he said. “The cliché is ‘it takes a village.’ Well, I didn’t do it by myself. I did it with Fonda, but Kent was a major, major driver of why we’re here today.”
After John Elliot graduated, he opened his architectural firm and began designing nursing homes for clients. Then, in 1982, he and Fonda founded American Medical Facilities Management, a skilled nursing, rehabilitation and long-term care services company in West Virginia, where they had discovered there was a need for nursing home services. When the Elliots sold the business in 2023, it had grown to become the state’s largest locally owned nursing home provider, employing more than 1,700 people at 19 facilities.
No doubt when John Elliot was just starting as a newly minted architect with a young family to support, he didn’t expect he would one day be a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, creating a pathway to success for future architects from all over the globe. Yet that is exactly what has transpired.
Following His Dream From Iran to Ohio
Hamid Estejab initially earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 2017 from Shiraz University in his native Iran. However, when he decided to continue his education and wanted to pursue a specialization in healthcare design, options weren’t available in his home country. Looking to broaden his horizons and see how industry peers in other countries worked, he landed upon Kent State for his master’s degree. Soon, Estejab was a graduate student fully immersed in the Elliot Program for Healthcare Design in Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
The Elliot Program for Healthcare Design is one of the few university programs in the U.S. focusing on the design of healthcare facilities. The program equips students with the knowledge and skills required to design spaces that are conducive to safety, satisfaction and efficiency for all end users, including patients, staff and caregivers. Students in the program must take elective courses from Kent State’s College of Public Health, College of Nursing and others to develop a comprehensive understanding of all the variables involved in planning such facilities.
The need for a well-rounded approach like the one required in the Elliot Program for Healthcare Design is something John Elliot knows well from his many years, as both an architect and entrepreneur in the nursing home sector.
John Elliot“The academic architectural environment is one of great design, great ability – a chance to design without any constraints – no money constraints, no building constraints, no technology constraints,” John Elliot said. “You can dream a building, but healthcare is not like that. It’s the second most regulated business you can have. Nuclear power is No. 1. Long-term care is No. 2. So, the companies that are specializing in healthcare need student architects who come out of Kent State and other universities to be more than just generalists because it’s so specialized.”
Innovation Will Be Key to Serving Changing Population Demographics
Healthcare design appealed to Estejab as a vocation that would feel gratifying. Still, he took that well-rounded educational experience one step further with a dual degree, pursuing a master’s degree in emerging media and technology in addition to his master’s in healthcare design. This is where everything began to click.
“I’ve always had a passion for technology,” Estejab said. “While I was studying healthcare design, I learned that we had some collaboration with the DI [Design Innovation] Hub, and I was a volunteer there. There are so many multidisciplinary things we can do with architecture and technology.”
Located in what was formerly the art building on the Kent Campus, the DI Hub is dedicated to collaboration and innovation, comprised of workspaces, maker environments, classrooms and event venues. The hub’s mission is to facilitate cross-disciplinary communication and problem-solving.
Part of Estejab’s immersion into both emerging media and healthcare design was participating in what would become an award-winning project across multiple disciplines.
Estejab was able to bring his vision for integrating technology and healthcare design to life as part of a $2.47 million grant project at Kent State titled “Toward a Model of Safety and Care for Trauma Room Design.” The project, led by Sara Bayramzadeh, Ph.D., coordinator and The Elliot Professorship in Healthcare Design, was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project featured an evidence-based design for a Level I trauma room. Bayramzadeh worked with an interdisciplinary team on the project, including healthcare professionals from Cleveland Clinic, alongside faculty and Master of Healthcare Design students from Kent State, including Estejab. The project was recognized by the Center for Health and Design with the Touchstone Award – Gold Category.
Safer, More Efficient Trauma Room Design Wins Touchstone Award
Researchers at Kent State University are being recognized for their work in creating designs that offer a top level of care.
Read More »Regardless of the technological advancements available in healthcare today, both John Elliot and Estejab acknowledge the importance of maintaining focus on the human beings who are served by the design.
“I believe we are in a transitional era where AI [artificial intelligence] is reshaping industries across the board,” Estejab said. “As we embrace these advancements in healthcare design, organizational culture and cutting-edge equipment, it’s crucial not to lose sight of the fact that humans remain the primary users of our buildings. Whether patients, staff or visitors, our goal should always be to ensure their experience is peaceful and calm.”
In his own career, John Elliot has witnessed this evolution in healthcare design over recent decades. He encourages future architects to pay attention to these changes.
“When we started out, it was a purely medical model. Now, it’s a social-medical model,” he said. “So, the soft needs of the patient or the resident are just as important as taking care of the medical needs. It’s an entirely different environment now and one that designers have to be very aware of.”
A Healthy Outlook for the Field of Architecture and Healthcare Design
As Kent State welcomed its eighth-largest incoming class in the university’s history this fall, the College of Architecture and Environmental Design was one of the top three colleges to see an enrollment increase. This growth in enrollment aligns with industry trends and U.S. demographics that paint a picture of a dramatically changing landscape on the horizon.
The field of healthcare design is expected to grow significantly over the next few decades as population demographics shift. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, in less than two decades, older adults are projected to outnumber children in the U.S. for the first time in history. Research shows that by 2030, every Baby Boomer will be 65 or older, and by 2060, roughly one in four Americans will be 65 years or older.
In general, the life expectancy for U.S. Baby Boomers is longer than previous generations thanks to improved healthcare and nutrition. This population boom will put increased pressure on all types of healthcare resources, including hospitals, skilled nursing centers, in-home care and assisted living facilities.
“Now the geriatric population is the largest-growing segment of any segment of the population of the United States or the world, for that matter,” John Elliot said. “With limited resources for care, there have to be ways that we use technology and innovation because there just aren’t enough dollars in the system or people in the system to take care of the demographics that are now coming with the Baby Boomers turning into their 70s ... and I’m one of them.”
Looking Back, Looking Ahead and Paying It Forward
While John Elliot is now looking back at a long and successful career as an architect and entrepreneur, Estejab is just starting out on this same path.
In 2023, the same year the Elliots sold their business, Estejab graduated from Kent State with his dual master’s degrees in healthcare design and emerging media and technology. He now works as design and analytics synthesizer at NAC Architecture in Columbus, Ohio. Estejab said his next goal is to obtain his American Institute of Architects licensure while “continuing to work at the intersection of design and emerging technologies.”
“I believe the design process is on the verge of significant transformation, and it’s essential for me to stay up to date with these changes,” Estejab said.
As the Elliots shift their focus from business to philanthropy, they hope others like Estejab will follow in their footsteps. They encourage successful graduates to help open doors for future Golden Flashes so they may have the same opportunities.
“Don’t forget Kent State once you get out and you make it,” John Elliot said. “You need to give back to Kent because there are students just like you who have just as great a need, who are following in your footsteps.”