Katina Parker

Katina Parker is a Durham-based filmmaker, photographer, writer, graphic designer, cultural curator, social media expert, and communications consultant who has advised both the Ford Foundation's Just Films and the Association of Independents in Radio's Makers Quest 2.0 initiatives. Parker teaches social media and film through the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University and serves as an Instructor for North Carolina's Community Folklife Documentation Institute. Through her work, Parker speaks to the multi-dynamic possibilities of technology and media to spark social and cultural change for voices and communities that have traditionally been under-represented in all forms of media. She is the Co-Chair of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Task Force and the Vice President of the Association of Wake Forest University's Black Alumni (AWFUBA) group. Prior to this Parker worked as a creative director in Los Angeles, where her body of work encompassed directing and producing films and multi-camera TV; graphic and web design; magazine writing; and photography. Her clients included Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Saul Williams and Cody ChesnuTT. She spent several years working as a Media Strategist for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where she fine-tuned her public relations and communications savvy. Both Parker and her work have been featured in or on NPR, Entertainment Tonight, Essence.com, Vibe.com, American Urban Radio Networks, the Yolanda Adams Morning Show, The Warren Ballentine Show, BlackEnterprise.com, BlackVoices.com, PoliticalAffairs.com, Rolling Stone magazine, The Fader magazine, Straight No Chaser magazine, and Wake Forest University magazine. Parker is a proud alumni of the National Black Programming Consortium's New Media Institute. Previous awards include Best Documentary Honorable Mention for her film "Peace Process" at the Vibe UrbanWorld Film Festival. She received her M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Southern California and her B.A. in Speech Communications from Wake Forest University. Previously, she has been mentored by Inaugural Poet Maya Angelou, Poetry Legend Sonia Sanchez, Emmy Award-winning documentarian Alan Berliner, and Veteran sitcom Director Peter Bonerz. She was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Wilmington, Delaware.