Dr. Delecia Parker Named Dean of Health Sciences

McKENZIE (September 10)  — Bethel University has named Dr. Delecia Parker dean of the College of Health Sciences. Parker, who has served the University for 15 years as a nursing faculty member, department director and interim dean, now provides permanent leadership for Bethel's growing health care programs.

As dean, Parker oversees academic quality, accreditation and strategic planning across the college, with a focus on interprofessional collaboration and preparing practice-ready graduates for the health care workforce. The college is in a period of growth. It recently launched two new nursing pathways, Direct-Entry and LPN-to-BSN, and secured a $225,000 state grant supporting the Physician Assistant Program's rural clinical training.

“Dr. Parker has spent her career at the intersection of patient care and teaching, and Bethel has been the beneficiary of that for 15 years,” said Dr. Joseph R. Hames, university provost. “She knows our students, our programs and the health care needs of our region as well as anyone. Her leadership as interim dean made this decision an easy one.”

Parker joined the Bethel faculty in 2011 after transitioning to nursing education from nearly two decades of clinical practice. A native of Pensacola, Florida, she began her nursing career in 1993 in pediatric acute care at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, later serving in the Department of Pulmonology at Nemours Children’s Clinic, where she managed the cystic fibrosis patient registry and supported the newborn screening database for northwest Florida.

At Bethel, she taught across the undergraduate nursing curriculum and served as course coordinator for multiple foundational and leadership courses before being named director of the Department of Nursing in 2022. In that role, she led faculty development, curriculum oversight, student success initiatives and program quality outcomes. She was appointed interim dean of the College of Health Sciences in May 2025.

Parker holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice in executive leadership from Union University and a Master of Science in Nursing Education from Florida State University, where she also earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing with honors and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Her scholarly work focuses on nursing education, informatics integration and student-centered instructional design, and she is co-author of an article on preparing nursing leaders published in the Journal of Nursing Education. She is an active member of the American Nurses Association, the Tennessee Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau International.

“Nursing was not the profession I first envisioned for myself, but it became my calling, and teaching the next generation of health care providers has been the great privilege of my career,” Parker said. “Bethel’s mission is to serve, and there is no better way to do that than by preparing nurses, physician assistants and health professionals who will care for people in need. I am honored to lead this college and excited about what our faculty and students will accomplish together.”

Parker and her husband have two grown sons and two grandsons. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys gardening, reading, sewing and traveling, and she remains especially fond of the beaches of northwest Florida. Having grown up in a Navy town, she and her family are avid Blue Angels supporters.

For more information about the College of Health Sciences at Bethel University, visit bethelu.edu.

About Bethel University

Founded in 1842, Bethel University has spent nearly 185 years helping students turn their talents into purpose. Located in McKenzie, Tennessee, within two hours of both Nashville and Memphis, Bethel is a Christian community of nearly 3,000 students from 33 states and 41 countries. The University’s mission is to equip individuals for a life of service through academic, spiritual, social and experiential learning to go forth and transform the world. With 52 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, Bethel aims to be a leader in student-centered education through innovative academics, character formation and life skills development. For more information, visit bethelu.edu.