Dr. Parsa grew up in Ventura and graduated from UCSD and Creighton. He practiced emergency medicine on the Central Coast prior to spending three years as a medical missionary with Pioneers International in Papua New Guinea. He is currently a Samaritan’s Purse DART member, having provided medical care with Samaritan's Purse in disaster settings in Haiti, Ecuador, Iraq and Bangladesh. He is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Texas Tech medical school in El Paso, where he serves as the CMDA faculty advisor.