Parker appointed associate director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research

Elizabeth Parker, D.V.M., has been appointed as Texas A&M AgriLife Research associate director for operations and strategic initiatives, effective March 16. Parker fills the role previously occupied by David Lunt, Ph.D., who recently retired.

Parker will oversee the agency’s strategic and financial planning and will work to increase available funds for research. Among her tasks will be to supervise statewide research infrastructure, faculty financial requests and internal grant funding, investments in research, and intellectual property and commercialization at AgriLife Research.

“I am pleased to welcome Dr. Parker to her new position within the AgriLife Research leadership team,” said Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and director of AgriLife Research. “Her extensive national and international experience, as well as her success in funding and operations in her previous role at the Director’s Office, made her an outstanding choice.”

A career dedicated to science endeavors

Since December 2017, Parker has served as the AgriLife Research international and strategic partnership specialist. She joined AgriLife Research in 2014 as chief veterinarian for the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, where her position included working with the AgriLife Research Director’s Office on funding requests and technical and operational responses. 

With extensive Congressional, trade association and international experience, Parker built a distinguished career in agriculture policy prior to joining AgriLife. She worked on the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Agriculture for Ranking Member Charlie Stenholm (D-TX) as the American Veterinary Medical Association’s American Association for the Advancement of Science 1999-2000 Congressional Fellow, then as professional staff for Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) and Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Parker worked on resource mobilization, global disease strategies and policy for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

A Texas Aggie

Parker grew up on a farm in Abilene. She attended Texas A&M, earning a bachelor’s in biomedical science in 1987, a bachelor’s in veterinary medicine in 1990 and a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1993. After graduation, she worked in private veterinary practice in Texas for six years before relocating to Washington, D.C. and beginning her science and agriculture policy career.