URMIA DRM Award Winner David Parker

In this third and final episode of our mini‑series honoring the 2025 Distinguished Risk Manager Award recipients, guest host Miguel Delgado, Carnegie Mellon University, sits down with award‑winner David Parker, Pima Community College, to explore his remarkable and unconventional path into risk management. From early days as a school‑bus mechanic to accident reconstruction with law enforcement and ultimately leadership across Arizona’s public sector and higher education, David reflects on how curiosity, mentorship, and a willingness to rethink traditional approaches have shaped his more than 30‑year career. He discusses the evolution from traditional to enterprise risk management, the importance of viewing challenges through multiple lenses, and the pivotal role URMIA’s community has played in his professional growth. Beyond his career, David shares stories of civic service, disaster‑relief volunteering, and what he envisions for life after retirement—all of which illuminate why he was honored at URMIA’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas this past October. 

Show Notes 

David Parker, Executive Director, ERM, Ethics & Compliance, Title IX Coordinator - Pima Community College 

URMIA’s Distinguished Risk Manager Award 

Three Honored as Distinguished Risk Managers at URMIA Annual Conference 

Guest 

David Parker, Executive Director, ERM, Ethics & Compliance, Title IX Coordinator - Pima Community College 

Guest Host 

Miguel Delgado, Associate Vice President and Chief Risk Officer – Carnegie Mellon University 

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Transcript

Michelle Smith: [00:00:00] Welcome to Season Seven of URMIA Matters, a podcast about higher education, risk management, and insurance, whether you are an URMIA member or supporter. Thanks for listening. Let's jump in. Welcome to Season seven of URMIA Matters, a podcast about higher education, risk management, and insurance. In this mini-series, we shine a light on three people who have shaped and elevated our profession through leadership, innovation, and service. This special series is dedicated to those who have earned the URMIA Distinguished Risk Manager Award in 2025. The DRM, the URMIA Honors and Awards Committee selects nominations year round and presents the award at the URMIA Annual Conference. This award isn't about a single project or a one-time success. 

It's a recognition of a long time, distinguished career in risk management, a career [00:01:00] built on professional excellence, service to peers and institutions, mentorship, innovation, and leadership through both calm and challenge. Okay. Each of our guests brings a unique journey. They've helped shape how we think about risk in higher education built programs and processes that protect communities, guided colleagues, and rising risk professionals, and often quietly served as mentors, teachers, and builders behind the scenes. So, whether you're a seasoned risk professional, a newcomer, or simply curious about the human side of risk management, you're in for a thoughtful, inspiring conversation. Let's jump in.  

Miguel Delgado: Welcome to the show, David. Your signature line is an alphabet soup of credentials that now gets DRM added to it. Congratulations, obviously, you had no idea that you were gonna win this award. So, what was the first thing that came to mind when you heard your name or when did you know that they were about to announce your name? [00:02:00]  

David Parker: Well, first of all, they kept it a secret, a deep, dark secret, and I wouldn't have even thought that it was possible because I haven't been with ER as many years as many of my friends who have been considered for the award when they mentioned. That could be a lot of people, when they mentioned Arizona, it kind of narrows it a little bit when they mentioned the industrial commission, I just started taking my badge off 'cause that kind of narrows it all the way down. Uh, it was a wonderful surprise and the greatest honor I could imagine.  

Miguel Delgado: Yeah. David, I, I'm, I'm so thrilled that you were the recipient of this award, and I think we often talk about the work that, you know, effective risk managers do, and how oftentimes it's you're doing your job, right? That you know people don't always know who you are. What you're doing. So, I, I just think it's just incredible that you were able to be recipient of the award, and I know that you've been doing excellent things in risk management for decades, so I'm really excited for you. So, with over 30 years as a risk manager, regulator and practice leader, was there a defining moment [00:03:00] in your experience that led you here? And perhaps along with that question you could tell us a little bit about your journey.  

David Parker: Well, I started out my work life as a mechanic on school buses. One day I came to the conclusion trucks and buses had the personality of a brick. It was time to do something else. I grew up reading stories about Texas Rangers, and, you know, those kinds of things. So, I joined San Diego PD, had a wonderful time there. Became a specialist in several areas. One of those was accident reconstruction. So, I went to work for the county, and my role was to go to the worst of the worst accidents and investigate them, document them for when we obviously got sued later. And then I moved to Arizona when I got married. Thought I was going to do the same thing for the Department of Transportation. They were experiencing the same problem. 

And one of the board members went to a conference, came back, wrote a letter to the director, said, went to this conference, heard about this great new concept called risk management. We should be doing it, and these are key words and we should be helping all the political subdivisions do it well. And they [00:04:00] decided that was something good for the new guy. I was instantly a risk manager, and along with Steve Holland from University of Arizona, we started right at the same time as the two state agencies that had it. But one of the differences was my mandate from the beginning was to help other public entities do it well as well. And PRIMA and URMIA have been two of the places that have helped me do that. My wife and I went to the PRIMA Conference in New Orleans over our first anniversary, had our anniversary dinner at Brennan's. If you convert for inflation, it's probably still the most expensive meal we've ever had. 

But I listened to the keynote speaker, and he was talking about how he had to look up what risk management was, 'cause it was, you know, 1988, it's still in its infancy. And his comment was, you are in the most envied place to be because you get to develop what it's going to be and how it's going to be effective, and that was the hook that has kept me in it ever since. I moved to Pima County in 1996, here in [00:05:00] Tucson. Retired from the county in 2011, spent four years as a practice leader. During part of that time, I was also supporting higher ed. And my daughters were going to college, and I fell in love with higher ed. So, that took me to Angelo State before I got to work with Steve Bryant as part of the Texas Tech system. We decided to stay in Arizona. I spent four years with a special district here that had me also helping manage a captive, and then the position at the college opened up five years ago, so technically I've been here since 1996, but with some time while my family was here and I was at Texas Tech. 

Miguel Delgado: That's an incredible journey, David, and I assume that, you know, there's several folks who are gonna hear this. Me probably being one of them. And you have probably forgotten more than I know about risk management. So, I just love hearing these stories of just decades of experience and it's so fascinating to hear how you started off as a, a law enforcement and that led you into risk management. So, I think that's incredible. If you were to give other risk managers a bit [00:06:00] of advice, what would it be? Is there any particular secret that you think has helped you to be successful as a risk professional?  

David Parker: There, several thoughts. The first one is when I look at most successful, I mean really successful risk managers, and I ask the question, how many of them were truly qualified for the position that they walked into when they entered it? The answer is very few, almost nobody. And so, how do you become successful? Well, the first thing is you aspire to, to take your group, your role, to places that have not been imagined before. The other thing is that you tend to see risk management from the lens in which you came from. So, if you were in safety, oh, everything is safety. 

If you were insurance, that's a solution. If you were a claims adjuster, you tend to see it from that lens. So, step back and look at how can I learn the holistic job. And view it from all the different perspectives. I got to start when it was [00:07:00] traditional risk management. I followed the titans who started the concept of self-insurance and delivered that. We moved from there to strategic risk management and now to enterprise risk, and many of us took on the compliance hat as well. For those with a lot of joy, we get to do Title IX too, which can suck your joy. But the question is how do you look beyond and how do you look at it outside of our box? 

I had the opportunity to go to the senior executives and state local government program at Kennedy School of Government. Very eye-opening leadership program, how to lead organizations. I was sponsored for an international exchange with a risk manager from the London Borough of Newham, and got to see that along with everybody else. We understand that. My friends across the pond speak a common language separated, or we're common people separated by common language. And now I add trying to get to the same place by two completely different routes. Don't just think of it the way you and your friends have seen it in the [00:08:00] past. Don't just do surveys. What's somebody else doing that may not be the right thing for you? Understand the underlying principles and then find the solutions that work well and in the practice leader years when I was working with organizations. 

Completely different composition, different mindset structuring, finance differently. The things that worked for me did not work for them, and so I had to find new solutions and all of those things helped. So, the biggest thing is look for a route to the best possible place. Don't think of it, just the way you and your friends do. Look for the solutions. Think of the underlying principles and even better applications of those, and then work with everybody else and share the joy as it goes. We're an amazing community. I learn more even today from others than I think I could say that I share with others because I'm always calling and asking, and they're sharing, and it makes all the difference in the world. Saves me a lot of work too.  

Miguel Delgado: Yeah, those are incredible answers. David. Thank you for sharing those words of wisdom. [00:09:00] I think those are gonna really help a lot of people in the higher ed space, where as you really, um, stressed, you have to learn how to be flexible and you can't have that, you know, dogmatic mindset that you know the answer, you know the way, and you really have to find the way that works best for your organization, which to your point, can look very different. You know, they all look different, but you know what's the right way for your institution and for the situation you're in. And I think that's gonna help a lot of people who hear this.  

David Parker: In many places, let me put it this way, in smaller numbers of places, that's where we should be getting. We may have to say no. Or yes, be the final answer. But for the most part, we're a consultant helping other people find the right path and the right answer. And if they understand that in my mindset, I'm not successful, if they're not successful, that opens doors. 

Miguel Delgado: Yeah, absolutely. So, you mentioned URMIA. Can you maybe tell us a little bit about how URMIA has helped you in your career, and perhaps if there's any particular ways that you have been able to leverage URMIA?  

David Parker: Well, my first start with URMIA was [00:10:00] while I was a practice leader, so I was one of those people finding somebody to present with, so I would actually be selected to find a practitioner, so we'll be selected. But as I became a member of it, first I had to work remotely because we didn't have a lot of funds at Angelo State to do travel. I had to fit within the budget. Many people don't know, but there was a year where we couldn't do yoga, 'cause the yoga instructor couldn't come. Well, I was a volunteer Pilates instructor with the Y. We did Pilates together that year. 

Uh, the community in URMIA is what makes it. The number of people who are involved as a practitioner, yes, I appreciate all of our industrial fillets, but one of the things that makes URMIA so different is the amount of involvement we provide for every person who wants to be involved. I've been part of the welcome committee. I'm not sure I did that as well as my peers did for our new members. Helped with. Planning out the education model for the next couple of years. I've had a chance to be on [00:11:00] the conference planning committee now, but today I'm one of the ERM champions along with Gretchen from Syracuse. 

There's an opportunity for everybody. It helps me once again recognize the different perspectives. I moved from municipal to community college with a little bit of high four year in between. Those all have different perspectives and sometimes the things that are on our radar are things that I've never dealt with before. So, that support across the way. One of the things that I think is really valuable with URMIA is it's a level perspective of everybody's worth. I'm in a community college. I've got friends who are at the biggest R1 institutions with international presence. We are all viewed the same. There is no gradient other than in the membership dues. So, that is a very valuable place to be, is the way that URMIA values and supports its members. And we all look at each other as equals. Maybe some with a little different [00:12:00] experience, a little more experience. But the titles mean nothing once you get to URMIA.  

Miguel Delgado: Yeah, that's a great observation, David. I feel the same way about the community, the organization. Every member has a seat at the table and has a voice, and I think again, that's what makes it such a fantastic organization. A couple last questions here and we'll wrap this up. Can you tell us a little bit about life outside of work, what you enjoy doing outside of work? You can't say work or reading about risk management. And then if you could just tell us a little bit about. What's next? Any particular dreams or goals that you would like to undertake?  

David Parker: So, outside of work, going back to the Kennedy School program, that made me become very interested in citizen government. So, I spent seven years on my town's planning and zoning commission. And got to be part of seeing how my town would grow in the future and see how that has continued on. Had a chance to serve seven years on the industrial commission over state OSHA, workers' comp, labor department, those types of things. Uh, four years as chair there, and then handed off to somebody else and watch them take it to places where you were heading, but maybe you [00:13:00] wouldn't have gotten there and they could. 

We worked with Children's Theater for years, served on the board and as a technical director today, I am working with disaster relief. So, we're trained where if a disaster occurs, I can go fill one of many different roles as a volunteer if I can get away from here, and that will be much more when I finally pull the plug and retire. I've worked with several associations in the past, very involved with my church. I'm one of the deacons. I help lead music. This summer we'll be leading a mission trip to France to help do work on French language, missionary language immersion school. They have some major work that the government is requiring them to do, and they don't have the resources to do it, so we'll be we go and doing that. 

So, lots of things going on. Some of those are preparation for when I can do it more, when I finally have my full day free. I worry a little bit about that first year of retirement. I know a year later, I'll wonder whether it was time for work, but that first year scares me a little bit, but that's still a ways off. [00:14:00] We have just filled all of my positions. I have traditional risk, enterprise risk, ethics and compliance, and Title IX great people in those positions over the next year, year and a half, two years, watching them fully develop the programs become fully integrated. I'm looking forward to the day where, when it's the right time, I can just quietly step to the side, and it just keeps right on going and growing. And so, when that happens, probably we'll start doing some of those hub and spoke vacations where you go find a, a furnished apartment, or a house to rent for a month and get to know that area and then a couple months later do that all again. But exciting times here, and then I'm sure there'll be exciting times afterwards. 

Miguel Delgado: Sounds like an amazing plan, David. Well, David, I enjoyed our conversation. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, and I'm confident that. Glean from the wisdom that you've shared here. So, thank you. 

Narrator: You've been listening to URMIA Matters. You can find more [00:15:00] information about URMIA at www.urmia.org. For more information about this episode, check out the show notes available to URMIA members in the URMIA Network Library.