Biography

Prof. Pat Parks is a multi-hyphenate arts administrator, producer, vocalist, writer, educator, strategist, talent professional, and executive coach working at the intersection of creative leadership, cultural production, and the global arts economy. Prof. Parks currently serves as Assistant Professor and Area Coordinator of Theatre Arts Administration at Howard University, where they teach in Arts Management, Production, and Administration and lead curriculum development focused on producing, general management, organizational leadership, and equity-centered arts practice.

Prof. Parks holds a Master of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame. Their career spans higher education, live theatre, music, television, and media, with a particular emphasis on building sustainable pathways for artists, administrators, and producers navigating complex creative industries.

In their academic role, Prof. Parks has designed and taught courses including Human Resource Management; Leading in a Changing Society; Intro to Financial Management; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging; and Arts & Innovation, which explores how artificial intelligence and other emerging technological modalities are reshaping the fine arts, creative labor, and arts organizations. They have also overseen the Theatre Administration Labs supporting front-of-house operations, box office management, project management, and season production logistics. Prof. Parks has received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Professor Award for Theatre Arts and has led significant enrollment growth and program expansion within the Theatre Arts Administration area.

Prof. Parks is deeply engaged in arts programming, producing, and industry integration. They created and moderated the Beyond the Stage Masterclass Series, centering the business, leadership, and producing structures that bring artistic work to life. Guests have included Tony Award–winning producer Jeffrey Seller (Hamilton, Rent, Avenue Q), producer Jamila Ponton Bragg (Gypsy, the Wiz, Fat Ham, Passover), company management leaders from the original Broadway company of The Lion King, veteran stage manager Beverly Jenkins, and other Broadway producers, general managers, artistic leaders, and executives shaping contemporary theatre and live entertainment. Additional programming includes We Run This!, a workshop series that deconstructs major commercial productions from concept to the Broadway stage and beyond.

A cornerstone of Prof. Parks’ work is building industry-facing pipelines and creative enterprise ecosystems for students and emerging professionals. They brought the Wasserman Music Entertainment Accelerator to Howard University, connecting students with agents, managers, tour managers, promoters, music publishers, label executives, and film and television leaders. Participating organizations have included Universal Music Group, William Morris Endeavor, United Talent Agency, Warner Music, SoundCloud, Live Nation, Roc Nation, and Atlantic Records. The Accelerator has resulted in internships and placements in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Nashville.

Initially partnering with Country Music Television (CMT) and mTheory, Prof. Parks developed a  coaching framework for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists and artist managers through the Equal Access Program, with a focus on executive development, brand, career and media strategy, and creative enterprise building. Prof. Parks currently serves as Success Coach for the Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Fellowship at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, where they support fellows in producing, production management, marketing, and community engagement through benchmarking, professional development planning, and cross-departmental coaching.

Beyond academia, Prof. Parks has worked extensively across music, theatre, television, and media production. Their credits include production and creative consulting for BET (UNCF: An Evening of Stars), NBC, and Paramount. They also co-created and hosted a television pilot that aired on the CW Network and was shopped to the Game Show Network, leading the project from concept and pitch through production, promotion, and monetization strategy.

Through industry relationships, Prof. Parks worked with the line and story producers of The Battle, an ESPN-U reality competition series inspired by Dallas Austin’s Drumline, to develop and pitch new unscripted concepts to networks. In the producing role, Prof. Parks assembled capital, secured talent, and aligned sponsorships—demonstrating an ability to pair creative development with production strategy and commercial execution.

Prof. Parks also advises artists, executives, and organizations on executive development, brand and media strategy, audience engagement, and creative enterprise building, supporting talent represented by major agencies and cultural institutions. They were part of the team that developed curriculum for Ulta Beauty’s inaugural MUSE Accelerator, supporting diverse beauty brand founders as they prepared to launch, scale, and thrive in retail environments.

Internationally, Prof. Parks has led projects across North America, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, bringing a global lens to corporate, arts management, and cultural leadership. Earlier in their career, they held senior consulting roles in London and worked in strategy and change management for IBM and as a Profiler/Leadership Analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—experience that informs their systems-level approach to producing, governance, and organizational leadership in the arts.

A performing and recording artist themselves, Prof. Parks brings lived creative practice into every aspect of their teaching and producing work. They are currently completing a book entitled Entertainer Intelligence (EntQ), which examines performance, leadership, and the evolving role of the multi-hyphenate artist in the 21st-century arts economy.

Prof. Parks serves on the Harvard Black Alumni Society Board, severed on the Black Alumni of Notre Dame Board, and is a co-founder of the Keepers of 306 at the National Civil Rights Museum.