As an artist and educator, Jennifer Parker carves sites for collective engagement between disciplines. Facilitating, identifying, and determining the boundaries of complex, multi-dimensional space with the aim to develop (a sense of) community to encourage learning and inform and develop the practice of its members. Her methods of inquiry build on lab and studio visits, literature reviews, and conversations with faculty and students across disciplines, triggering a heuristic learning process to pursue creative research for exhibitions and publications.

Parker received a BA in art from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1990 and an MFA in sculpture from Rutgers University in 1992. She has been part of the faculty at the University of California Santa Cruz since 1999 in the Art Department, served the Digital Arts and New Media MFA program from 2008 to 2019, served as the Art Department Chair for five years and is faculty in Environmental Art and Social Practice MFA program.