[2] Parker attended Vassar College, graduating in 1928 with a bachelor's degree in geology, minoring in chemistry.
[3] Throughout her studies, she undertook geographical trips to Wyoming focusing on glacial geology, accompanied by geologist Thomas McDougall Hills.
During the summers of 1936-1940, Parker also spent time researching for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution alongside Fred B. Phleger.
In 1943, she was offered an opportunity to return to a research position with the Shell Oil Company in Houston, expanding her foraminifera taxonomy work into the petroleum industry.
Parker explored and published papers on many topics, such as taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, stratigraphy, and preservation, over the course of her long career.
A 1973 follow-up study titled, “Late Cenozoic biostratigraphy (planktonic foraminifera) of tropical Atlantic deep-sea sections”, has also been cited numerous times.
[1] Parker's contributions to the field also led to her founding the Marine Foraminifera Laboratory at Scripps with Fred B. Phleger in 1950.
The laboratory was funded first by the American Petroleum Institute, and later by the Office of Naval Research and National Science Foundation.