Julie Parsonnet
Julie Parsonnet is the George DeForest Barnett Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University.  She is an Infectious Diseases clinician and epidemiologist whose research focuses on the role of infections in chronic disease. Early life and education. Julie Parsonnet was born in Newark, NJ to Mia Eimer, MD, an internist who worked as a clinical researcher for Hoffman LaRoche and Victor Parsonnet, MD, a heart surgeon.  Her mother had escaped from Nazi Austria in 1939 with her younger brother, Manfred Eimer.  Dr. Parsonnet is a fourth generation physician; her paternal great-grandparents  — Drs. Max Danzis and Victor Parsonnet — were 19th century, eastern European refugees who helped found the Newark Beth Israel Hospital. Julie Parsonnet graduated from Millburn High School at the top of her class and Magnum cum Laude in History and Science from Harvard University. During one summer, she worked as an intern for Senator Clifford Case. Dr. Parsonnet graduated from Cornell Medical School in 1983.  At Cornell, she was awarded the John Metcalf Polk Prize (highest medical school academic average) and the Clarence Coryell Prize (highest average in Internal Medicine) and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. Research. Dr. Parsonnet  completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a clinical Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she began her research on the newly discovered pathogen, "Helicobacter pylori". Subsequently, she served as a Public Health Service Officer (O4) in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Division of Enteric Diseases.  As an EIS officer, Dr. Parsonnet investigated the largest outbreak of "Brainerd diarrhea" in the US, identifying untreated water as the source of the disease but not identifying the actual pathogen. She also continued her work on "H. pylori" showing that the  organism’s prevalence was decreasing over time and that, in the majority of cases, infected individuals were asymptomatic. In 1989, Dr. Parsonnet joined the faculty at Stanford University. She continued her research on "H. pylori", both in the US and in Chiapas, Mexico.  This work was pivotal in establishing "H. pylori"’s causal role in stomach cancer and stomach lymphoma.  According to one source, Dr. Parsonnet is the most cited researcher in the field of gastric cancer. She has served on numerous international and national committees, focusing on strategies for preventing stomach cancer, a leading cause of cancer death worldwide , most notably as a consultant to the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Parsonnet’s more recent research has focused on the role of infections in growth and metabolism.  In that domain, her group demonstrated that human body temperature has decreased in the United States since the Industrial Revolution.  This finding —which more recently has been replicated in Bolivia -- was widely reported in popular media. Dr. Parsonnet’s team attributed this drop in body temperature to decreasing prevalence of chronic infectious diseases and to living life in the “thermoneutral zone”.  Dr. Parsonnet has  also conducted substantive work on the epidemiology of tuberculosis, HIV, and on COVID-19. Medical Education. Dr. Parsonnet served for five years as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Stanford University School of Medicine during which time she directed overhauls of the curriculum, advising and admissions programs.  The scholarly concentration program—a central element of the curriculum—became a model for other medical schools across the country.  Dr. Parsonnet has been elected to six terms on the Stanford University’s Faculty Senate, including one as Vice-Chair, and served on numerous University Committees.  In these roles, she has pushed for  a ban on campus smoking, revision of the honor code, stronger support for graduate students, and a clearer definition of academic freedom. Honors. Dr. Parsonnet is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, American Epidemiological Society, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In addition to many academic honors, Dr. Parsonnet was also listed for 15 years in “Best Doctors in America” (2001-2016). Personal Life and Health Advocacy. Dr. Parsonnet is married to Dr. Dean Winslow, a fellow faculty member at Stanford. She  holds both US and Austrian citizenship.   Dr. Parsonnet is President of SAFE, a 501C3 of healthcare providers focused on reducing firearms injuries and deaths through education and advocacy.  She has served as an advisor to the Mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo in developing San Jose’s gun harm reduction programs.  Dr. Parsonnet is also on the Board of Doctors for America, where she focuses on Community Health issues, including firearms injury reduction.  With her husband, she also shepherds the Eagle Fund, a charitable trust focused on improving the well-being of refugees.