Before returning to her native Knoxville last year, Dr. Parker led national artificial intelligence policy efforts for four years in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, serving as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Founding Director of the National AI Initiative Office, and Assistant Director for AI. She also served as co-chair of the Congressionally-directed National AI Research Resource Task Force, which is working to democratize access to the computational and data infrastructure needed for AI research. She served for two years (2015-2016) at the National Science Foundation as Division Director for Information and Intelligent Systems.

In these roles across three Administrations, Dr. Parker led the development of numerous landmark national AI policies bolstering research, governance, education and workforce training, international engagement, and the Federal use of AI.

She now also spearheads the AI Tennessee Initiative, the university’s strategic vision and strategy for multidisciplinary artificial intelligence education and research. The initiative is designed to increase UT’s funded research, expand the number of students developing interdisciplinary skills and competencies related to AI, and position the university and the state of Tennessee as national and global leaders in the data-intensive knowledge economy.

Dr. Parker first joined the UTK faculty in 2002 as an expert on distributed and intelligent robot systems, human-robot interaction, and AI, having published extensively in these and related areas. She previously worked for several years as a Distinguished Research and Development Staff Member and Group Leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researching multi-robot and human-robot systems.

She is a member and fellow of several national scientific associations, including the IEEE; recipient of many prominent research, teaching and service awards; and has a B.S. from Tennessee Technological University, an M.S. from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in computer science.

For more information on TSK and its meetings, please email the secretary, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him at 865-679-9854.