In winning the competition, she was awarded a cash prize, a trip to Senegal and Morocco, and was introduced to then-Philadelphia City Council member Marian B. Tasco, who hired Parker as an intern.

[10] After graduating from Lincoln University in 1994, Parker worked briefly as a high school English teacher in Pleasantville, New Jersey, and then returned to Tasco's office in 1995, where she did a variety of roles for a decade.

[18] But during her campaign for mayor, she reversed her position on them, saying, "Terry stops are what I wholeheartedly embrace as a tool that law enforcement needs, to make the public safety of our city their number one priority.

[21] Parker was endorsed by several labor unions and members of the city's political establishment, including former mayoral candidates Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and Derek S.

[24] On May 16, 2023, Parker was declared the winner of the Democratic primary, receiving 32.6% of the vote and defeating her closest opponent by ten percentage points, due to her strong support in Black and low-income neighborhoods in the city.

[11] For almost a month after securing the Democratic primary, Parker did not campaign, citing complications from an earlier dental root canal procedure.

[25] Even after recovering, Parker refused to debate Oh, claiming that the 7 to 1 voter registration advantage the Democrats made any effort to interact with Oh a waste of campaign resources.

[4] In contrast to her predecessors, her transition team was slow to appoint commissioners for a majority of city agencies, leaving some departments without permanent leadership for over a month into Parker's mayoral term, while others retained appointees from the Jim Kenney administration.

[33] Parker's administration proposed a media policy which required all public statements to be approved by the Mayor's Office of Communications,[34] drawing criticism from many branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia, who warned on the evening before the policy went into effect that it would prevent branches from communicating promptly with patrons about programming and unplanned closures.

[40] Parker proposed a $1 million cut to funding for Prevention Point, a harm reduction and syringe exchange organization that operates in Kensington.

[45] On April 11th, Parker visited Kensington to commemorate her 100th day in office and released her public safety plan for the neighborhood and the city at large.

[46] On May 8, Parker ordered police and municipal workers to clear a large encampment between McPherson Square and Allegheny Ave in Kensington.

Of around 75 people who were counted living on the block, the Parker administration said 59 were placed in a shelter or treatment since April, with 31 institutionalized after the encampment clearance.

[49][50] In September 2024, Parker released a statement announcing her support for the proposed 76 Place at Market East development, despite objections from neighboring Chinatown and other community groups prior to its cancellation in favor of the New South Philadelphia Arena.

[55] She supported Terry stops, also known as "constitutional stop-and-frisk", in her mayoral campaign[56] after having previously fought to end them on the Philadelphia City Council, labeling them unconstitutional and discriminatory.