Robert Parker

Robert Parker has more than two decades of executive leadership and institutional advancement experience.

Since 2014, he has been the senior associate dean for development in the College of Arts and Sciences and executive director of the Arts and Sciences Foundation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing strategies to meet and exceed the College’s $750 million goal in the University’s $4.25 billion campaign, “For All Kind: The Campaign for Carolina.”

In fiscal year 2019, under Parker’s leadership, the Foundation raised $109.5 million in new gifts and pledges for Arts and Sciences. He also provided strategic leadership for the Foundation’s major gift activity for the “Carolina First” campaign (UNC’s previous campaign), in which the College surpassed its $350 million campaign goal by more than $35 million.

Between his appointments at UNC, he served as vice president for college advancement at Agnes Scott College from 2009 to 2014. There, Parker worked closely with the president and trustees to plan, organize and execute the school’s largest campaign, “The Greatness Before Us,” with a $100 million goal. The campaign closed in December 2016 at $115.9 million.

Parker began his career in development at the University of Chicago, where he received an M.A. in religious studies (1989) and a Ph.D. in theology (1997). He holds a B.A. in history from Baylor University.