Heather Parker is a Marine scientist with over 20 years experience. She spent seven years as a NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) Corps officer, with more than two of those as a deck officer/science officer on several NOAA ships, participating in various atmospheric and oceanographic experiments at sea, followed by an assignment with the National Marine Fisheries Service in California managing a large upwelling database for the West Coast, as a physical oceanographer, and as a NOAA diver for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
She then joined the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration to work on oil spills in a variety of roles, including trajectory modeler, overflight aerial observer, and a range of contingency planning and spill training and response activities. She then became the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for the CA, NV, AZ region. After which she became a private consultant for several years, continuing to work on spill response and preparedness support for private industry. Following that, she took a job with U.S. 13th Coast District in Seattle as the Regional Response Team/Joint Response Team Coordinator, coordinating and managing large groups of multiple regulatory, trustee, and other agencies as well as tribes, US agency members, Canadian government officials, Indigenous peoples and members from industry during various meetings, trainings, and oil spill exercises, as well as actual spill response events.
She then took a position with Navy Region Northwest as the Navy On-Scene Coordinator and Regional Oil Spill Program Manager. In addition to currently working for a U.S. federal ocean management agency in charge of environmental studies, she is also currently a PhD candidate at the World Maritime University.