Office of the Dean

Professor Emerita Shirley Hymon-Parker is interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at N.C. A&T, steering the college's $45.8 million research portfolio. She previously served as the college's associate dean for research from 2018 -2022, a period in which the college’s enrollment grew to more than 1,100 students. She established the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program; refined and strengthened the Research Apprenticeship Program; and served on the APLU Policy Board of Directors. She also served as chair and director of the 1890 Association of Research Directors.  

Parker served as interim dean of the college from 2015 to 2018, supervising academic, research and Cooperative Extension programs. Under her leadership, the CAES established a strategic plan, Destination Excellence; enhanced the efforts of Cooperative Extension; and led the establishment of MOUs with universities in Africa and China. She also provided leadership in expanding and enhancing the efforts of Cooperative Extension to serve North Carolina communities, farmers, youth and other individuals, particularly the underserved, through innovative programming, and began efforts to establish the college’s first doctoral program, which were completed in 2021. 

Her research activities include issues surrounding childhood obesity; the value of undergraduate research; and rural entrepreneurship. She has served as chair of the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy for American Public and Land-grant Universities and the 1890 Association of Research Directors; served as director at large of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences; and been a member of the Policy Board of Directors of the Board on Agriculture Assembly. In 2024, she was recognized by the N.C. Agromedicine Institute for her years of service to the institute and its Board of Directors.

Hymon-Parker earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from North Carolina Central University; a master’s degree in apparel design from Cornell University; and a doctoral certificate in gerontology, as well as her doctorate in education policy, planning and administration, from the University of Maryland - College Park.