Background
Dariush. French-Iranian, born in New York. Raised across Fiji, Pakistan, Albania, and Greece while his father worked for the United Nations Development Programme. Came back to New York for high school and college. BS in Chemistry from Iona College. Moved to California in 2015, drawn to emergency medical services, and has worked in the field ever since. Married, with two daughters.
Why this work
Growing up in four countries, he attended school with the children of diplomats and politicians, and spent afternoons with neighbors whose families had nothing. The contrast was constant. So was the recognition that the kids on both sides were essentially the same. The difference was circumstance, not character.
Years of emergency response have only confirmed it. People are far more often in survival mode in the lead-up to health complications, accidents, and crises than the standard explanations acknowledge. Project Clarity is what came out of thinking about that for a long time — a framework for translating what's obvious from inside emergency response into something that can move policy.
What's at stake
He has two daughters. They're young enough that the world they inherit is still being shaped right now. Project Clarity exists partly because handing them a world where survival mode is the default state for most people isn't an outcome he's willing to accept without trying.
Emergency response teaches you that you can't save everyone. But you can show up, do the work, and refuse to look away. This is that.