Dr. Judy Goforth Parker serves as the Chickasaw Nation Commissioner of Health Policy.

She completed master’s degrees in nursing and advanced practice nursing at the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing and earned a Ph.D. in nursing from Texas Woman’s University. Dr. Parker completed postdoctoral studies in the inaugural cohort of Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, postdoctoral degree program in health policy. Her focus included curriculum development in health policy for young Chickasaw scholars, development of health impact assessment and health impact checklist tools, development of a quarterly health policy newsletter and co-authoring a scholarly policy article about mortality in American Indian and Alaskan Native women.

Dr. Parker served as an elected tribal legislator for five, three-year terms (1994-2009) and was a supporter of health issues within the tribal legislative body. In 2014, she was named to Governor Bill Anoatubby’s Cabinet for the Chickasaw Nation as Secretary of the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health (CNDH), serving from 2009-2018.