As senior director of major and planned gifts, Rodney Parks leads a staff of five at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Foundation. He is responsible for growing the university’s donor base in the areas of planned giving, major gifts, annual giving and advancement services.
Parks was most recently director of development at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, where he increased alumni and planned giving, assisted in corporate relations and secured more than $1 million in government appropriations. He previously spent 20 years in banking and commercial lending. He was an Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 honoree in 2007, when he was a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch in Little Rock.
Parks is a graduate of Arkansas Tech University in his hometown of Russellville. He is a former president of the ATU Alumni Association and served on the advisory board of the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business. He has taught as an adjunct professor at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. He will also receive the Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Council for Advancement & Support of Education.
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