Tabatha Parker, ND

Dr. Tabatha Parker, ND

 

  • Co-Founder of Natural Doctors International (NDI)
  • Director of Education at Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM)
  • UTNE Reader Visionary of the Year Award

Dr. Tabatha Parker, co-founder of Natural Doctors International (NDI), the first and oldest naturopathic global health organization, worked in Nicaragua for over a decade focusing on tropical medicine, women and children – specifically women’s empowerment, cervical cancer screening and primary care. As NDI Executive Director, she led the organization in developing the first permanent global naturopathic clinic as well as naturopathic global health courses and inter-disciplinary internships. She has worked in the trenches seeing how structural violence in developing nations and in the USA affects people and health.

Over the past decade, Dr. Parker has worked inter-professionally and collaboratively to further professions like naturopathic medicine. She has served on the boards of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), The California Association of Naturopathic Doctors (CAND), sat on Educational Working Group of The Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care and the Multi-Disciplinary Committee of Integrative Medicine (ACCAHC) for the Underserved (IM4US) and the Naturopathic Coordinating Council (NCC). In 2012, she became the first naturopathic doctor to graduate as a Faculty Development Scholar from UCSD’s, “Addressing the Health Needs of the Underserved” headed by Dr. Ellen Beck. A founding faculty member of the Bastyr University California branch campus, she worked too successfully under the leadership of Dr. Moira Fitzpatrick. During that time, she organized the Affordable Care Act Strategic Meeting the first meeting of its kind to bring together MDs, DCs, NDs, LAcs and Midwives with key policy figures for ACA.

Tabatha Parker worked with the World Health Organization on the WHO Benchmarks for Training in Naturopathy and recently became one of two NDs to attend a WHO World Health Assembly as guests of the World Federation of Chiropractic in 2014, again furthering inter-professional collaboration. Parker is Co-Chair of the Masters of Science in Global Health at National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM), the first global health program offered at a naturopathic medical school. She joins the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) as Director of Education with great enthusiasm. Tabatha Parker is a writer, social justice activist, artist, singer and dedicated wife and mother of two. In 2011, she was given the prestigious UTNE Reader Visionary of the Year award, alongside other global visionaries.