He wanted his life to go beyond the reach of the corporate business world. He wanted to leave a legacy.

Now, looking back on his career as the Milton Kuolt Professor of Business at CWU, one thing is certain: his legacy is secure. Not just at Central, but across the state.

One of the hallmarks of Parks’ legacy is his ability to build relationships. He’s a connector—one of those individuals uniquely gifted at bringing others together to achieve a common goal.

He does that through his passion for teaching, continuous learning, and emotional intelligence.

“Teaching was always in my bones, even in my corporate life,” Parks said. “One of my biggest joys was teaching my team, my customers, and clients.”

Parks joined Central in 2017 after nearly two decades in sales, management, and marketing at the Coca-Cola Company. After his cancer diagnosis, Parks began reflecting on his life and what he wanted to leave behind. He took early retirement from Coke and joined the faculty at Central, teaching business classes on the west side of the state.

While he’s just as comfortable in the classroom as he is in the board room, Parks’ true passion lies in working with non-traditional students and business professionals. 

“Those students bring a level of experience and a level of humility into the classroom. They’ve faced a lot more challenges in their lives,” he said. “Then they are immediately able to apply course material to their workplace and see its impact.”

Parks first was introduced to emotional intelligence concepts while working with a life coach following his diagnosis. Emotional intelligence—EQ, for short—refers to a person’s ability to be aware of, manage, and express their emotions and the emotions of others.

“They introduced me to mindfulness, self-awareness, and emotional regulation. It was very integral in my healing journey,” he said, noting that EQ became essential to his academic journey as well.

After arriving at Central, Parks was working with recent graduate Elizabeth Fifield (’18) on an eight-week EQ training course when they realized how beneficial the skills were to everyone in the business world. They co-developed and launched their first EQ course in May 2020.

Following the shooting of George Floyd that summer, Parks was asked to serve on a College of Business task force to develop racial equity training. That became an EQ-based anti-racism course.

“You do a lot of introspective deep thinking and soul searching around your biases to help you understand how and where you may be triggered, and use that insight to develop empathy and compassion for those different than you,” he said.

Since then, Parks has taught EQ courses for professionals, executives, and Central’s own staff and faculty. The College of Business is also beginning to offer an EQ professional development workshop with its faculty and pulling it into the graduate program.

“Andy laid a foundation of emotional intelligence for the college and the university, and now that’s something we’re able to build on,” said Faiza Khoja, dean of the College of Business.

Relationship Building

One of Parks’ more pivotal relationships was with the Washington Employers for Racial Equity (WERE), a coalition of Washington-based organizations committed to developing a talent pipeline for people of color.

During his four years working with WERE, Parks served as co-chair of the Black and Indigenous Employee subcommittee and the Black Talent Development Task Force, as well as facilitator and lecturer for its Leadership and Professional Development program.

Shirline Wilson, executive director for WERE, met Parks while conducting a listening tour when she started her position.

“I loved his vision, his ideas and his steadfast commitment to equity,” said Wilson, who also served as a mentor in the Leadership and Professional Development program. She described the experience as “transformational.”

Like Parks, Wilson is passionate about emotional intelligence and the critical role it plays in creating more diverse workplaces.

“As a manager and coach, I would often use emotional intelligence skills to help people prepare for broadening responsibilities or working in cross-racial contexts,” Wilson said.

But, through her work with Parks, Wilson learned more about the self-compassion aspects of EQ and the impact of communication styles on relationships.

“The workforce is diversifying, and these skills are incredibly important because we’ve got to get better when working across different perspectives,” she said. “Since we’re going to be working in a diverse context anyway, why not have all the tools and all the skills available? We have a widening gap between who has resources and who doesn’t have resources. To solve the tough societal issues, we have to be able to see and work with difference.”

Even with Parks’ retirement, WERE is excited to continue its partnership with CWU and the Leadership and Professional Development program, which brings together mentors and mentees from across the state. Wilson hopes to see 50 participants when the third cohort launches in February—an increase from 24 in its first year.

Eyes On the Future

While his work with WERE focuses more on adult learners, Parks is equally passionate about helping traditional students find their place in the corporate world. In the past two years, Parks was instrumental in securing a $120,000 grant from the KPMG U.S. Foundation’s Reaching New Height Programs to build a partnership focused on helping students of color become more successful in business.

Since then, Parks has helped build a program for KPMG that reaches across academic lines and includes students and faculty from other state universities. The program consists of three components:

• An on-site experience at KPMG for job shadowing, mentoring, and mock interviews;
• An online, module-based course focused on EQ and professional development to help students have successful internships; and
• An intern and leadership summit, held at KPMG in May.

In addition, Central was able to use some of the funding to help sponsor a conference for students of color at Green River Community College in April.

Partnerships like the one with KPMG are win-wins for all involved. They help corporations find talented new employees while setting up students for success post-graduation—especially students of color.

“Students of color are going to come up against unique challenges because of their ethnicity,” Parks said. “I wanted to help prepare them for what I felt they would most likely face as they go into the corporate world. Not only did we teach leadership skills, but we wove in the context of bias and how to navigate that bias and the stress it creates in the workplace.”

Parks approached all of his work in a practical, humanistic way that was relatable to colleagues and students alike.

“For him, it was all about the students. He opened doors for them,” Khoja said. “Our KPMG partnership was very much about how to get students, especially first-generation students of color, exposed to role models. It’s about charting a path for students from where they are to where they should be going. Those relationships and initiatives that he built have taken Central to the next level and will continue to help us grow.”

Ben Krauss joined the College of Business as the new Milton Kuolt Professor of Business this spring, and he is already busy leaning into Parks’ work, continuing and growing the partnerships he created.

“I’ve told Ben that we want to grow it—not just with KPMG, but add on more partnerships,” Khoja said.

As part of that growth, the college created the Office of Inclusivity and Readiness, which will offer emotional and cultural intelligence training for faculty, staff, community partners, employers, and students, while preparing students for professional careers. 

The Next Phase

While Parks may be retired, he’s far from done. This fall, he took time off to travel with his wife of 35 years, Adele. Then it’s back to work.

He is already planning to rework his EQ curriculum to incorporate integrated attachment theory, which looks at the impact of workplace relationships based on early childhood experiences. Meanwhile, both Central and WERE are hoping to bring him back to continue to cement his impact on current and future business leaders.

“I feel very blessed. I’m very grateful. I’ve done what I was put on this earth to do, though that doesn’t mean I’m finished living by any means,” Parks said. “My ultimate legacy and purpose is to show how compassion and corporate America can coexist, and through my time at Central, I was able to live that out.”

Andy Parks' Tradition of Excellence

During his seven years at CWU, Andy Parks received multiple honors, including the Faculty Excellence in Service, a President’s Diversity Award, and a Faculty Excellence in Professional Service and Teaching award. Other accomplishments include:

In 2023, he received his most prestigious recognition: the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education (ACE).

• In June, Parks served as Faculty Marshal for Central’s west side commencement ceremony
• in Kent. “That was one of my all-time honors,” he noted.
• In July, he was recognized for his service to the university and awarded emeritus status by Central’s Board of Trustees.