Daniel Toma served for over twenty-two years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. His assignments included postings in Italy, Poland, Israel, Ireland, and Germany. During the Iraq War, he served an extended assignment with the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Basrah, Iraq, as part of a team dedicated to economic development in that region; the Superior Honor Award for efforts in that posting is one of several awards he received while working for State. Since retiring from the Department, he has been called back to service on short-term assignments in countries including China, El Salvador, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Greece, and Moldova. He speaks Italian, Spanish, German, and Polish, as well as having some familiarity with several other languages. Prior to working for State, he taught history for several years in the Choctaw Tribal School System near Philadelphia, Mississippi. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, where he is active in his local Catholic parish, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Married for over twenty-five years to Dana Polus, a native of the Czech Republic, he has four children, three of whom attend his alma mater, the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). He is also a knight of the Constantinian Order of St. George, the dynastic order of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.