L. Jo Parrish, MA, MBA
Vice President, Institutional Advancement

Jo Parrish oversees all aspects of a multi-faceted communications program that includes public education, public and media relations, marketing, Web site, and publications. She also oversees all aspects of SWHR’s fundraising and development planning activities including renewing support from current sources, expanding and diversifying SWHR’s funding base, major fundraising events, and providing oversight for the establishment of a fund for women’s health research grants.

Parrish joined SWHR in 1999. She has over 20 years of experience in organizations, associations, education, and cultural arts with special expertise in strategic and process planning in start-up or new program operations. Parrish was most recently Director of Development at the National Organization on Disability (NOD), where among other accomplishments she led a successful capital campaign to add a statue depicting President Franklin Roosevelt in a wheelchair to the FDR Memorial.

Prior to NOD, she led the development and communication teams at Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an organization supporting social entrepreneurs in developing countries. As Deputy Director of the Association of Schools and Agencies for the Handicapped, Parrish served as Chief Operating Officer and managed all program, development and fundraising projects, and the annual conference for a network of 165 private schools and agencies with special needs clients.

A lifelong advocate for gender equity on a variety of issues, Parrish was a consultant to women business entrepreneurs in Central Europe after the fall of communism. She was selected to represent the American Association of University Women at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. Parrish has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and English from California State University, a Master’s degree in English from UCLA, certification in International Business from Cambridge University in England, and an MBA from Rutgers University.

Parrish is a member of Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the American Society of Association Executives. She is a founding member of the Board of Governors of the Virginia Association for the Gifted and Talented, an advisor to the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and serves on the Board of Directors of the TMJ Association.

Topics of Expertise for Interviews, Lectures and Presentations:

• How to Be an Advocate for Your Health

Recent Invited Presentations

• Greater Washington Academy of Women Dentists
• Junior League of Washington, DC
  
• National Vulvodynia Association DC/MD/VA Support Group
• Positions, Inc.
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute
• Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia