Elizabeth S. Parks, MA, PhD is a coach and consultant for professionals and leaders. She is an engaged scholar and educator with two decades of academic and non-profit experience related to collaboration and communication, listening and dialogue, and leadership and identity. In addition to client-centered coaching for the growth opportunities of interest to her clients, she offers specialty coaching in the following areas:
Communication and Leadership Skills Communication Ethics and Professionalism
Culture Shock/Transition
Wicked Problems
Peace-Building, Conflict Negotiation and Mediation
Higher Education Culture
Team Building and Collaboration
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, Social Justice, Belonging
As a consultant, coach and speaker, Parks creates spaces of learning related to relational interactions, cultural diversity and professional life, and engagement with strategic initiatives that study and promote workplace and community well-being and belonging. Her work focuses on how we all might listen and dialogue in creative and spacious ways, focusing on the communication and collaboration challenges found in Higher Education and community care contexts.
With advanced degrees in Communication (PhD/MA, University of Washington) and Deaf Studies: Cultural Studies (MA, Gallaudet University), her scholarship is grounded in the belief that our individual, relational, and organizational lives are enriched by bravely creating hospitable spaces of dialogue across difference. She is an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, is trained in conflict mediation and communication, and has worked extensively as administration, faculty, staff and consultant in a variety of public and private higher education and non-profit contexts. Parks has offered hundreds of professional presentations around the world, and researched, written and published over 50 peer-reviewed academic articles and two books, including “Listening: The Key Concepts” (2025) and “The Ethics of Listening: Creating Space for Sustainable Dialogue” (2018).
2024. Nishime, L. and Parks, E.S. Reading a letter for Black Lives Matter: A cultural studies approach to Asian American intercultural communication. In Nakahama, T. and Halualani, R., Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, 2nd Edition. Wiley Press.
2023. Foot, K., Van der Watt, M., and Parks, E.S. Special Issue: Frontiers in organizing processes: Collaborating against human trafficking/modern slavery for impact and sustainability. Societies: MDPI Books.
2022. Parks, E.S. and Aoki, E. Listening across the United States: Diverse cognitive constructs and regional codes. In Wang, C. and Chao, L, Communicating across Differences: Negotiating Identity, Privilege, & Marginalization in the 21st Century. Cognella Press.
2022. Harvey, J., Faw, M.H., and Parks, E.S. Care-giver/Care-receiver Supports. In Thompson, T. and Harrington, N. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Health Communication, 3rd Edition. Routledge.
2021. Ojeda-Hecht, E. and Parks, E.S. A bridge for communication: Negotiating intergenerational listening expectations in face-to-face interactions and digital platforms. In Robinson, R. (Ed.), Communication Instruction and the Gen Z Classroom: Educational Explorations. Lexington Press.
2016. Parks, E.S. “Bringing together and setting apart: Christianity’s role in the formation of deaf cultural communities in Latin America and the Caribbean” in A. Hacker-Daniels (Ed.), Communication and the Global Landscape of Faith. Lexington Books.
2014. Parks, E. “National and international deaf cultural identity: Creating symbolic borders through perceived use of American Sign Language” in D. Watt and C. Llamas (Eds.), Language, Borders and Identity. Edinburgh University Press.