Mr. Parker began his career in the audit department at American Quasar Oil before returning to TCU in 1978 as an assistant athletic director. He joined PepsiCo, Inc., in 1982 as human resources manager, which led to a nearly 30-year career culminating in a role as senior vice president of human resources, labor relations and global diversity and inclusion. He received the prestigious PepsiCo Global Diversity Award and recognition as a Top Diversity Leader by Black Enterprise Magazine.

After retiring from PepsiCo in 2010, Mr. Parker served as president and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), and later as president and CEO of the National Association of Securities Professionals.

He served on the TCU Board of Trustees since 2001. While on the Board, he held leadership roles and served on multiple committees and subcommittees, including Executive, Academic Affairs; Governance; Development, which he chaired; Executive Compensation; Intercollegiate Athletics; and Study/Advisement on University Social Issues.

Mr. Parker served as co-chair of Lead On: A Campaign for TCU, the university’s most ambitious and successful philanthropic campaign, which launched to the community in 2019 and raised over $1 billion for people and programs. The TCU community celebrated the successful completion of the campaign along with the university’s 150th in 2023. This campaign positioned TCU among the top institutions in the U.S. for comprehensive fundraising efforts.

Mr. Parker was a former member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Council, the International Board of Visitors of TCU’s Neeley School of Business, and the Dallas Regional Council. He supported the Amon G. Carter Stadium Project and was a Founder in the Addison & Randolph Clark Society, a member of the Britain Society and a member of the TCU Black Alumni Alliance. He was also a member of the board of the Brite Divinity School.

In addition to his TCU service, Mr. Parker also served on the boards of Baylor Scott & White Health, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Procter & Gamble and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

He met his wife of 47 years, Paula Rhodes Parker ’77, at TCU. Together they established the first fully endowed athletic scholarship for tight ends at the university, an endowed scholarship and an endowed professorship in TCU’s Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences. They also co-chaired the university’s successful $100 million Scholarship Initiative as part of The Campaign for TCU.

Mr. and Mrs. Parker played a pivotal role in establishing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and were actively involved in fundraising efforts for the upcoming National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.

Mr. Parker’s indelible legacy lives on in Paula, sons, Jonathan ’08 MBA, and Michael, daughter, Lauren ’07, and grandchildren, Giancarlo, Annabella, Marcello and Elijah.

He spent his first decade at Alcon in the toxicology department, eventually becoming its director. While he was there, the department profiled the safety for 10 successful products, and Dr. McDonald created a slit-lamp ocular scoring system that became the industry standard, and established the ophthalmic safe levels of ethylene oxide, which were accepted by the FDA.

During an 18-month educational leave in 1977–78, he earned his Ph.D. in cell biology from Tulane University. After returning from Tulane, Dr. McDonald spent his Alcon career in roles with increasing responsibility in R&D’s development section. During this time, he directed virtually every development group and function. Over these years, R&D released 20 ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, 18 ophthalmic generics, and 13 vision care products. By 1997, Alcon sales were $2 billion with new products from R&D representing 70% of these sales.

During his four decades at Alcon, growth was explosive: R&D’s annual budget grew from nearly $1 million to $400 million and Alcon sales, from $10 million to $4 billion.

After retiring from Alcon, Dr. McDonald spent five years as a consultant for Nestlé Nutrition R&D, in Vevey, Switzerland, implanting Alcon’s project management systems. Since then, the seventh-generation Texan has become a grassroots historian. His first book, Texas Rangers, Ranchers, and Realtors, published in 2021, explored social life and significant events in early Texas history. His second book, Alcon Laboratories — A Vision Fulfilled (1947-1997), to be published in May, tells the inspiring story of Alcon becoming the premier ophthalmic specialty company in the world.

Dr. McDonald serves on the advisory committees for the TCU Press and the TCU Center for Texas Studies. He is a mentor in the ambassador program of AddRan College of Liberal Arts. He and his wife, Shinko McDonald ’96, a prominent Japanese/English interpreter, sponsor an annual award for Texas Studies in the history department at TCU.

Now a senior instructor of microbiology, Dr. Jones was named 2023 TCU Student Government Association Faculty Member of the Year for his exemplary dedication to teaching and mentoring students in and outside of the classroom. He’s been recognized with numerous other teaching awards, including the Dean’s Teaching Award in 2016, and is a two-time finalist for the Wassenich Award for Mentoring in the TCU Community.

In addition to his role in the CSE, Dr. Jones is an assistant professor at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU where he serves as a co-chair on the admissions committee. He also serves on the TCU Health Professions Advisory Committee.

Dr. Jones has often rolled up his sleeves to tackle other leadership roles at TCU, including serving as chair of the TCU Faculty Senate from 2019 to 2020. He was named a Faculty Senate Honorary Senator in 2022.

As a member of the TCU 150th Host Committee and co-chair of the TCU 150th Programming Subcommittee, his efforts helped fuel the success of the university’s Sesquicentennial celebration.

Dr. Jones’ service on the TCU Clark Society Board began in 2015, with him subsequently serving on all its committees and chairing most at one time or another. As chair of the Clark Society Endowed Faculty Fund Committee, he rallied the Clark Board in support of the newly formed fund with a personal challenge gift. In 2021, he became Clark Board chair. Under his leadership, the board continued to thrive while supporting Lead On: A Campaign for TCU and the sustained growth of the Clark Society Endowed Scholarship, all while evolving loyalty and leadership giving recognition for the university.

Dr. Jones’ support of TCU fundraising efforts have extended to serving as a TCU Class of 1989 Annual Alumni Campaign co-chair in 2014, the CSE Representative for the Faculty/Staff Annual Campaign, and as an Office of Loyalty Giving Social Media Ambassador.

Dr. Jones is a member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, the American Society for Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His interest in global health issues has led him to continually seek partnerships and opportunities with global health initiatives that benefit his students and the greater good, aligning with the university’s strategic priorities. For example, for many years, Dr. Jones has worked with Dr. David Knight, founder and president of two organizations that work to improve health care services in developing countries.

Dr. Jones continues a legacy of service to TCU, as his mother, Mary Ruth Jones ’58, was awarded the Alumni Service Award in 2008.

At TCU, Mr. Williams served as the Student Government Association finance committee chair and expanded his global perspective through international experiences, including a nonprofit internship with Esperanza International in the Dominican Republic and May study abroad programs in Chile and Germany.

His campus leadership was recognized with the Pillar of University Leadership Award for substantial community impact through service. Alongside his business studies, he pursued a Spanish and Hispanic Studies minor, receiving the 2017 Faculty Choice Award for Excellence in Spanish.

In August 2020, Mr. Williams began his career in operations innovation with DaVita, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of kidney care worldwide. He quickly distinguished himself by heading the company's COVID-19 vaccine supply chain operations, enabling the vaccination of more than 200,000 patients and teammates in early 2021.

Later that year, he coordinated the patient triaging command center following Hurricane Ida, allowing the New Orleans market to treat more than 1,200 patients under emergency protocol despite having only three functioning dialysis centers.

Promoted to senior analyst in December 2021, Mr. Williams managed a 19-team cross-functional workstream to launch a new drug targeting a previously untreated condition for dialysis patients. He subsequently designed a pilot program for rapid medication deployment to 3,000 dialysis centers.

As manager since January 2023, he has led a team focused on implementing value-based care — a new economic model of health care that incentivizes clinical outcomes and quality, while concurrently serving as chief of staff for operations leadership across Denver, Las Vegas and Idaho markets.

Earlier this year, he was promoted to senior manager and has begun advising the COO and IT leadership teams on digital transformation initiatives.

His continued connection to TCU includes heading DaVita’s TCU recruiting team and regularly returning to campus to teach classes and mentor students interested in health care careers. Since 2022, Mr. Williams has served on TCU’s National Alumni Board, representing Denver in advising on university initiatives and alumni engagement.

This fall, he will begin the next chapter of his professional journey in the MBA program at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Ms. Brown is a STEM Scholar at TCU. The STEM Scholar Program offers students full four-year scholarships that provide academic support and leadership development designed to increase the numbers of academically talented students who seek to use their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to support underserved communities.

She has sought opportunities to mentor future generations of STEM students. As part of the LeaderKids program — a partnership of TCU, Leadership Fort Worth and the Fort Worth ISD — she encouraged middle-school students to develop leadership skills such as taking initiative, setting achievable goals and becoming strong communicators. She is also vice president and a mentor for the Molding Melanin Magic Mentorship Program, which supports women interested in STEM careers as they prepare for college.

Ms. Brown’s research experience as a TCU student is extensive. Through TCU’s Andrews Institute for Research in Mathematics & Science Education and the Pre-Health Professions Institute, she has conducted research on the experiences of high school students who participated in an after-school STEM mentoring program, analyzing qualitative data to develop conclusions regarding their emotions and motivations.

While working with the SOAR (Student Overview of Applied Research) Lab at TCU’s Institute of Behavioral Research in 2022-23, she conducted research on the relationship between socioeconomic status and knowledge of and attitudes toward contraceptives. Since August 2024, working with the Hill Lab in TCU’s College of Science & Engineering, she has performed a literature review of sources documenting the effect of progesterone on women’s behavior, and briefed participants and obtained consent for a correlational study about stress detection through the vagus nerve.

Ms. Brown plans to pursue a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling.