The 550 students of Florida’s first public university dedicated to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and research, Florida Polytechnic University, are back to work after last year’s inaugural semester. The university’s senior executive, Chief Operating Officer Ava Parker, a Santa Rosa County native, could not be more pleased. “We had a goal of 500 students. [We] had 550 students, so we’re very pleased we cleared our goals. It’s a huge thing for a brand new university.” According to Florida Poly’s bio on Parker, she is responsible for defining the course and implementing the vision for the state’s newest university.
Parker said, “We got good quality students, very math intensive. Students are excited to be here. They get how cool it is to be at a brand new university.” She said Florida Poly seeks students who want to be trend setters. “Our favorite term is ‘disruptor.’ They're interested in high tech areas. [We’re] building an innovative environment and they want to be a part of it.”
Parker’s history of innovation stretches back to her roots in Santa Rosa County. A 1987 graduate of the University of Florida’s Law School in Gainesville, Parker took her oath April 29, 1988 making her the first African American to pass the bar exam in Santa Rosa County. Four years before, the University of Florida honored her as one of twenty-two to enter the Student Hall of Fame, when she was a journalism major. During her time at UF, she served as chief justice of the University of Florida’s student traffic court and secured a van to transport handicapped students around campus.
However, Parker credits her time on the governing board for the state university system for creating the opportunity to join Florida Poly. “I served there through an appointment by [Governor Charlie] Crist and by [Governor Rick] Scott. I was there for ten years,” she said. “This was my volunteer service, but I really gained an expertise in higher education and developed a lot of policy. From there, I had a unique background, which positioned me for Florida Poly.”
Parker’s ambitious nature came out while attending Milton High School. “I was class president. I was editor of the yearbook, and was always just really involved. I always seemed to not require a lot of sleep. So to me, I am so much now of what I was in MHS it’s unbelievable.” Almost immediately out of high school, she was on her way to college. “I was the person who started college in the summer, excited about the opportunity to live in a larger market, [I] maybe graduated in May and went to summer school in June; I was excited.”
Parker comes from a strong family background. Her parents, she said, are deceased now but were married for 50 years. “My dad’s sister and her husband lived right across the street” she said, who just celebrated 68 years of marriage. “Those kinds of longstanding relationships create strong foundation. That's been part of why I’m as blessed as I've been.” She added, “My siblings and parents are all successful people in their areas. My brother, Glenn Parker, is a musician in a successful band over in Biloxi. My sister, Lana Oubre, is in home healthcare; [she] owned home a healthcare agency in New Orleans. After Katrina the area most of her clients were in flooded, [so] she moved back to Santa Rosa County. My brother, Noah Parker, was a minister, now deceased.”
Parker’s immediately family includes Florida State Representative Joe Gibbons, her husband, and 5-year-old twins. She said she met Gibbons during a legislative session in Tallahassee. He lived in Broward County. “It's an art not a science. We make it work because when we met, we lived in different cities. So it's about coordinating calendars. Before, it was Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Now, when I took on the project here in Lakeland, we added another city. He termed out and we dropped a city. Really, the respect you have for the other person is knowing that person is better for me if they have the opportunity to fulfill their goals.”
Parker said coming from a small town never hurt her drive or ambition. “I think that my parents and the experience I had at MHS prepared me to believe that no matter how large the market or how big the task, it was something I had the ability to accomplish. Growing up in a small town, we did some travelling. You don't realize how small things are; it was a big high school but still just one. Even though the environment is small, if the environment is positive, you have a lot of time to focus on the insides. Maybe that's the key. Maybe just the fact we live in a small town there's a focus on values. You're way more than just a number, those principles instilled not by just your parents but the whole community.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Santa Rosa County native heads Florida’s newest university