Since 2005, Dr. Parrish has served as a professor of Humanities, English, and History at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. She developed the Honors Program at Livingstone College and serves as the director. Her teaching areas include African American history and literature, and Southern history and literature with an emphasis on issues of race and gender. Her research interests are interdisciplinary: geography and African American writers; photography and Southern women; film and historical fiction; visual culture and the Black Church; civil rights law and narrative fiction.

Active in the Humanities and invested in the community, Dr. Parrish has lectured and facilitated a variety of workshops to include; Religion in Literature, Children with Imprisoned Mothers, Caretakers of Imprisoned Children, College Access and Success, Self-worth and Cultural Identity, Christian Education, Salary Negotiation and much more. Her favorite hobby is volunteering with youth summer programs throughout the nation. Notable activities include her engagement in a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as an Ernest J. Gaines Research Fellow, grant recipient and panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts - The Big Read, Oxford Summer Institute Fellow for the International Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, and grant recipient and fellow for multiple Teaching and Learning Faculty Institutes with the United Negro College Fund and Mellon Foundation. 

As the 2018 president of the National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP), Dr. Parrish created and implemented EdTALK, Equity and Diversity in Teaching – Assessing –Learning - Kinships,  a conference designed for administrators, curriculum and instruction developers, and educators at the 9-12 and post-secondary levels to promote effective instruction and innovative ways to engage African American students, enhance curriculum, and increase productivity to transform the future of the art and science of teaching and life-long learning processes. Currently, Parrish serves as president of North Carolina Region I of Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, president of American Association of University Women (AAUW) Salisbury Branch,  and president of the Faculty Assembly of Livingstone College.

Dr. Parrish has received multiple awards and recognitions for her contributions to the academy and community to include Faculty of the Year (10 times) at Livingstone College, Young, Gifted and Black from the International Ministers and Lay Association of the AME Zion Church, Southern Education Foundation Mentor Award, Community Leader Award from Salisbury Community Action Group, Interfaith America Ambassador Award, and much more. She has active membership in multiple professional academic organizations, and life memberships in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the Connectional Lay Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Livingstone College National Alumni Association. She resides in Salisbury, North Carolina with her daughter, Seven-Hazel.