Christopher J. Parker

Christopher J. Parker was born in Halifax County, Virginia to teacher Wanda Parker and Halifax County School Board member Jason Parker. Parker grew up on the family farm where he managed 200 acres of tobacco a year. Parker attended Halifax County High School where he became a student athlete.[3] Parker also obtained an associate's degree at Southside Virginia Community College while attending Halifax County High School.[4] In 2000, Parker was named the American Legion baseball student-athlete scholar of the year. Parker attended Virginia Tech in 2001 where he became a student-athlete and student coach for the Virginia Tech Hokies baseball team. In 2005 Parker graduated from Virginia Tech with an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and exercise science.[5] In August 2006 Parker married Anna Mullins at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia.[6]

In 2006 Parker became the athletic director and baseball coach at Patrick Henry Community College. At PHCC Parker became the first athletic director and established the first athletic program at the college. Parker managed to make the PHCC sports programs part of the National Junior College Athletic Association in 2007 becoming the first ever Virginia Community College System college to do so. Parker personally created Martin Field for softball and renovated the basketball gym.[7] In 2011, Parker was chosen the Junior College Southeast Region Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year being selected first out of 100 schools from 14 states.[8] In 2012, after serving as dean of academics, Parker became the Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Parker helped to establish Division III women's volleyball and women's and men's cross country to the NJCAA in 2015.[9] In 2016 Parker became vice president for enrollment of Pfeiffer University with James Gregory Hodges replacing him at PHCC.[10][11]

Parker joined the National Junior College Athletic Association in 2017 replacing Mary Ellen Leicht as the executive director.[12] The NJCAA government structure was reformed under Parker and the headquarters was moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2018. Parker chose to move the headquarters to Charlotte because of better housing and venue options as well as the majority of NJCAA members were east of the Mississippi River.[13] Parker assisted in establishing the Board of Regents in August 2018 which was created to better coordinate all 24 of the association's regions.[14][15] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parker and the board of the NJCAA decided to move all sports activities in 2020 to spring 2021.[16][17][18]