A widely respected expert on higher education and non-profit management, Thomas D. Parker, Ed.D., is a senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). He works on IHEP portfolio of projects in domestic and international higher education finance and administration.

Before his appointment at IHEP, Parker was executive vice president and treasurer of the $350 million Nellie Mae Education Foundation in Quincy, Mass. He was a co-founder, senior vice president, treasurer and president of The Education Resources Institute, a private not for profit guarantor of non-governmental student loans. He has also worked in the U.S. Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Institute of Education.

Parker began his career at Harvard University where he was Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Winthrop House in Harvard College and member of the faculty of arts and sciences, secretary to the visiting committees of the Harvard Board of Overseers and assistant to the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Subsequently he served as vice president of Bennington College in Vermont. He taught higher education administration and finance and the history of higher education for 15 years at Boston University.

Parker has served as consultant and speaker around the world for, among others, the World Bank in Vietnam, U.S.-Thai Higher Education Roundtable in Bangkok, Ministry of Education in Columbia, Tertiary Education Council in Botswana, International Rankings Expert Group in Warsaw, Salzburg Global Seminar (Austria), Ditchley Park Higher Education Group (England), and East China Normal University (Shanghai). He has lectured at the Ford Foundation Global Fellows program (Washington, DC, South Africa, and Italy). He is frequently quoted in the media on issues in higher education and has provided commentary on education during appearances on CNN, CNN International, and ABC national news.

Parker is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and holds the Master of Arts in Teaching and Doctorate in Education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.