Parker Joins Institute as Senior Associate

Washington, D.C., April 12, 2005—The Institute for Higher Education Policy is pleased to announce that Thomas D. Parker has joined the organization as a Senior Associate. A widely respected expert on higher education finance and student opportunity, Parker will work on the Institute’s growing portfolio of projects concerning higher education access, both domestic and international.

Parker most recently served as Executive Vice President and Treasurer of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in Quincy, MA. He previously served as President and CEO of The Education Resources Institute (TERI) in Boston. During the Carter administration, Parker worked in the National Institute of Education, at the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and in the first Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. Parker also served as Director of Planning and Research at the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation (now American Student Assistance), and as Treasurer and Senior Vice President at TERI before serving as its President and CEO.

Parker has nearly 40 years of experience in higher education management, policy, and finance. He began his career at Harvard University, where he served in several capacities including Secretary to the Visiting Committees of the Board of Overseers and Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School of Education. Subsequently he served as vice president of Bennington College in Vermont. He also taught higher education finance and the history of higher education for 15 years at Boston University. His international consulting experience in higher education spans from China, Vietnam, and Thailand to the United Kingdom. He holds Ed.D., M.A.T, and A.B. degrees from Harvard.

Parker also currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Office of the Chairman of the First Marblehead Corporation in Boston. He will maintain an office in Boston.

“Tom Parker’s broad experience as both a leader of national organizations and an outstanding scholar of higher education adds an important new dimension to our work,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, President of the Institute. “We are looking forward to benefiting from his experience and knowledge of the emerging issues in higher education around the globe.”

At the Institute for Higher Education Policy, Parker joins a group of distinguished staff and Senior Associates who provide hands-on leadership for the organization’s ground-breaking research and policy projects. The Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization whose mission is to foster access and success in postsecondary education through public policy research and other activities that inform and influence the policymaking process. These activities include policy reports and studies, seminars and meetings, and capacity building activities such as strategic planning.