St. Luke's Center for Leadership Lunch & Lead with Gwendolyn Parker

The St. Luke’s School Center for Leadership’s Lunch & Lead brought former SLS parent Gwendolyn Parker to the Hilltop. Parker talked with a packed room of Upper School students about her various careers including lawyer, business executive, novelist, screenwriter and producer.

As a black, gay woman, Parker often needed to pave her own way. She was the first black female admitted to Kent College and the only black female at a prominent NY law firm. Parker discovered the traditional corporate world was not the right fit for her.

“I realized I wasn’t going to be happy unless I had ‘all of me’ through the door. I needed to have my intellect, interests, passions and personality present to be fully integrated.” Parker’s present work as a writer has been her lifelong passion.

“The more you bring of yourself to what you do,” Parker told the students, “the more you’ll feel fulfilled.”