Who We Are

About
Parting Glass Foundation

A Special Operations veteran-led nonprofit that creates structured environments where warriors and their families can process, integrate, and move forward — equipped with evidence-based tools, peer brotherhood, and time-honored tradition.

Our Origin

Built by Operators.
For Operators.

The Parting Glass Foundation was founded in 2025 by Special Operations veterans who had seen firsthand what the warrior community needs — and what it takes to actually reach them. Not clinical distance. Not generic programming. A holistic approach built from the inside out: peer-led, culturally grounded, and designed for the specific population it serves.

"The hardest terrain most operators will ever navigate isn't on any map. It's the road home."

Our founders built PGF to serve the operators who fall outside the reach of conventional support systems — including the significant and underserved SOF population operating in the European theater, many of whom have no meaningful access to the kind of integrated, community-based care this work requires. They knew what calibration looked like when it was delivered by someone who understood the culture. The foundation exists to bring that to every operator who needs it, wherever they are.

Based in Missouri, incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 2025, PGF is an early-stage organization with a sophisticated methodology, a rigorous governance framework, and an immediate deployment timeline.

Our Conviction

Not Broken.
Unadapted.

An operator who has sustained years of high-tempo operations and now struggles to function at home is not disordered. His nervous system, his sense of self, and his moral accounting have all been shaped by environments of extreme consequence — and that shaping doesn't reverse automatically when the environment changes. The calibration was correct for where he was. The work is integration: not undoing what the mission made him, but reassembling it into something he can carry forward. We do not heal people. We create environments where warriors and families facilitate their own integration. The work belongs to them.

We call this work RE-Member: the literal reassembly of fragmented memory, identity, and relational self into a coherent, forward-facing life. Not restoration. Integration. The neurobiological rationale is on the Science page. The program is on the Programs page.

See the RE-Member OTC ›

Leadership

The Team

Built by operators who have carried the weight themselves — and found a road back.

Zach — Co-Founder, Program Lead

Zach

Co-Founder · Program Lead

Army Special Forces officer with over 19 years of service on Active Duty and in the National Guard. Deployed twice to Iraq and spent more than 9 years in Europe, including over two years in Georgia and a year in Ukraine. Shaped by his own trauma journey, Zach is passionate about bringing healing to the broken. He holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh and is working toward a Masters in Outdoor and Adventure Leadership from Wheaton.

Daniel — Co-Founder, Clinical Lead

Daniel

Co-Founder · Clinical Lead

Former World Class Athlete, PhD in Literary Studies from the University of Denver, and current Active Duty Air Force Special Operations pilot with several thousand flight hours across multiple airframes and combat experience in numerous theaters. His doctoral research focused on the neuroscience and psychology of PTSD — exploring how writing mimics and restores a critical brain function disrupted by trauma. Daniel's work shows veterans how the road to recovery can be paved with words.

Neal — Co-Founder, Medical Lead

Neal

Co-Founder · Medical Lead

23 years in US Army Special Forces National Guard with deployments to Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. As a Special Forces Medic, Neal is known for helping soldiers and their families navigate mental health resources. In his civilian career, he is passionate about introducing technology to military and federal clinicians to improve clinical outcomes for the personnel they serve.

The Name

What "Parting Glass" Means

Every culture that has sent warriors to war has also created a ritual for the threshold moment — when words fall short and something older takes hold.

The parting glass is that ritual. Not a farewell, but a fortification. A final drink offered to steel the traveler for the road ahead.

We chose this name because it names the work with precision. What we offer is neither treatment nor rescue. It is strength at the threshold — preparation before the hardest road. For the operators we serve, that road is the one leading back.

Parting Glass Celtic · English

The final drink before the traveler departs — to steel them for the road ahead, not to delay their departure.

На Коня Ukrainian — "On the Horse"

The warrior's drink at the threshold — a final fortification before mounting and riding toward what comes next.

Deoch an Dorais Gaelic — "Drink of the Door"

The original Gaelic tradition — the drink offered at the threshold between the known and the unknown road.

What We Stand On

Three Bedrock Values

Every program, partnership, and decision must stand on all three of these values. They are not aspirations. They are non-negotiables.

I

Truth

We tell the truth about what happened, what it cost, and who we are beneath it. Truth-telling is the entry point to integration. We hold it organizationally in how we communicate, how we account for our work, and how we represent those we serve. We do not sanitize stories for comfort or exaggerate them for impact.

II

Dignity

Every warrior, family member, and colleague carries inherent worth that no deployment, diagnosis, or failure can diminish. We do not sensationalize. We do not pathologize. We do not reduce a person to their worst moment or their greatest wound. We meet people as they are and honor who they are becoming.

III

Integration

We do not offer escape from the past. We offer a path through it. Integration is the conviction that fragmented experience can be woven into a coherent, livable story — and that this work, done in community, produces warriors and families who are more whole, not merely more functional.

How We Operate

The Parting Glass Test

Every decision we make is tested against one question:
"If we are who we say we are, what does this decision require of us?"

01

Identity Before Technique

Sustainable change begins with who you believe you are, not what you do or what happened to you. We build from the inside out — identity first, behavior second. Every program element is designed to serve the identity reconstruction at the center of the work.

The test: Does this build or merely treat?
02

Cultural Credibility Above All

We earn the right to serve this community through credibility, not credentials. Our facilitation model is peer-led by operators. Our language avoids clinical framing. Our environments are built for warriors. We do not translate civilian wellness into military context — we build from the warrior worldview up.

The test: Would the operator we serve recognize himself in our language?
03

Evidence Without Compromise

Cultural credibility does not require abandoning scientific rigor. Every program element is grounded in peer-reviewed evidence. We measure outcomes systematically. We report honestly on what works and what doesn't. Our methodology is built to improve continuously.

The test: Can we defend this to a skeptical clinician and a skeptical operator simultaneously?
04

Stewardship Over Growth

We are not in the business of organizational expansion. We are in the business of mission effectiveness. Every dollar contributed is a trust placed in our hands. We grow only as fast as we can maintain quality — and we are explicit about our limitations.

The test: Are we serving the operator, or serving our organizational ambitions?
Legal Structure

How We're Built

The Parting Glass Foundation is a Missouri 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 2025. Our governance structure is built to sustain the mission through leadership transitions, maintain legal and ethical compliance, and protect the organization's fiduciary integrity.

We operate under formal bylaws, a Board of Directors with defined fiduciary responsibilities, and a set of operational policies governing clinical guardrails, intellectual property, compliance reporting, and financial management.

Our governance philosophy is simple: the organization must be worthy of the mission it carries. Every policy framework is built to protect the operators we serve, the donors who fund the work, and the integrity of the methodology — in that order.

Compliance Inquiries ›

Governance Framework

Structure & Oversight

Board of Directors

Independent board with defined fiduciary duties, conflict of interest policies, and formal governance procedures per Missouri nonprofit law.

Clinical Guardrails

Formal policy delineating scope of practice, participant screening, emergency referral pathways, and the distinction between peer facilitation and clinical treatment. A licensed Clinical Supervisor is on-call 24 hours per day throughout every residential event.

501(c)(3) Compliance

IRS compliance procedures, fiduciary duty protocols, and annual reporting framework managed under formal organizational policy. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Financial Transparency

Financial documents available to donors upon request. We do not sell or share donor information. Overhead costs are disclosed in our annual reporting, and the majority of every dollar contributed goes directly to program delivery.

Join the Mission

Ready to Move?

Trauma can become generational. We are committed to interrupting war's ripples into the future.

Whether you're an operator, a donor, a clinician, or an organizational partner — there's a lane for you.

See the RE-Member OTC › Support the Foundation Partner With Us