The Eagle Fund
The Eagle Fund is a donor-directed charitable trust established in 2015 to provide relief to victims of war worldwide. This year, the Fund’s efforts are almost exclusively directed at supporting civilian victims of the continuing armed conflict in the Middle East. Over the past decade, the people of Syria and Iraq have suffered from both civil war and terrorism. Millions have been displaced, both within the Middle East and to countries throughout Europe. The human toll is heartbreaking. Since 2015 the Eagle Fund has given large donations to organizations advocating for and providing humanitarian relief to refugees from the Middle East. Grantees include the UN High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF, Crisis Action, and Save the Children. The Eagle Fund, which is a tax-exempt 501(c)3, is administered by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Only 1% of the fund’s assets are used for administration, guaranteeing that charitable giving goes efficiently to groups helping those in need.
The Eagle Fund was founded in 2015 by a large gift from Dean Winslow and his wife, Julie Parsonnet, both physicians at Stanford. Colonel Winslow served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard for 35 years. During this time he deployed a total of 9 times to Iraq and Afghanistan supporting US troops. Working in the military hospitals, Dr. Winslow witnessed first hand the suffering of non-combatants in these wars. From 2006-2013 Dr. Winslow arranged transportation, housing, and medical care in the US for 25 Iraqi children and adults who required surgery not available in Iraq. He was recognized for this work by the government of Iraq in 2008. Dr. Parsonnet, the child of a refugee from Nazi Germany, has worked in countries of Africa and Latin America suffering from political unrest and armed conflict.
Grants to date include donations to the following organizations:
United States Fund for UNICEF
International Rescue Committee, Inc.
Crisis Action, Inc.
Save the Children
Mercy Corps
Islamic Relief USA
Crisis Action, Inc.
Syrian American Medical Society Foundation
Col. Dr. Dean Winslow
Above image: Dr. Winslow (right) in Baghdad, 2008, with two children with congenital heart disease whom he later brought to the US for surgical repair.
Dean Winslow, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. He has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1998 and served from 2003-2008 as Co-Director of Stanford University’s Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program. He was in private practice in Wilmington, Delaware where he started the state’s first multidisciplinary clinic for HIV patients in 1985. Dean worked in various research and executive positions in Pharma and Biotech industry from 1988-2003. Dr. Winslow joined the staff at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in 2003, where he served as Chief of the Division of AIDS Medicine from 2003-2012 and finally as Chair of the Department of Medicine from 2011-2013. Dr. Winslow returned to Stanford University fulltime in 2013, and currently is an attending on the inpatient University Medicine and Infectious Disease consult services and does bedside and didactic teaching at Stanford Hospital and Palo Alto VA.
Colonel Winslow served from 1980-2015 as a flight surgeon in the Air National Guard. He deployed to the Middle East six times from 2003-2011 supporting combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September 2005 Colonel Winslow coordinated military public health and force protection in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 he served as an ER physician at the United States Air Force 447th EMEDS (combat hospital) in Baghdad and in 2008 served as hospital commander of the same unit during the surge Colonel Winslow’s military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters, Aerial Achievement Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Combat Action Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal with bronze star, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with 2 bronze stars, Iraq Campaign Medal with 4 bronze stars, Antarctica Service Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal with bronze star. He has logged 1150 military flying hours in fighter, transport, and combat rescue aircraft, including 431 combat hours and 263 combat sorties. Since 2006, Dr. Winslow has arranged medical care, transportation and housing in the U.S. for 25 Iraqi children and adults who have complicated medical conditions for which surgical care is not currently available in Iraq. In 2008 he was recognized by the Iraqi Army for humanitarian service to the people of Iraq.
Dr. Julie Parsonnet
Above image: Dr. Parsonnet (left) preparing to travel to a distant hopsital in Liberia.
Julie Parsonnet is the daughter of a Jewish refugee from World War II. Her mom, Mia Eimer Parsonnet, fled Austria at ager 16 with her younger brother following Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) and the Anschluss (the German seizure of her country). Her great-grandparents on her father’s side were also refugees from eastern European pogroms. The United States gave her family a chance to start again. Starting from nothing, their hard work and thirst for education led to illustrious careers in medicine, science and law. They never forgot their own trials, however, and committed themselves to helping those suffering from war and sectarian violence. Dr. Parsonnet, an epidemiologist, has devoted much of her career to prevention of disease in the developing countries, working for extended periods with other researchers and physicians to improve the health of the underserved in Liberia, Jamaica, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Mexico.