Parrish Mort served VaHomeschoolers as a registered lobbyist at the General Assembly for 13 years, and spent 16 years on the Government Affairs team. She was a member of the board of directors for eight years—including six years as President and/or Executive Director. Among Parrish’s accomplishments was the transition to the production of the full-color magazine VaHomeschoolers Voice, which was the successor to the black-and-white VHEA/VaHomeschoolers Newsletter. She served as the publisher of Voice, working with editors to make sure the magazine maintained high-quality standards and met the organization’s guidelines for tone and inclusivity. She contributed articles to VaHomeschoolers’ publications for 17 years.

Parrish chaired three VaHomeschoolers conferences and was conference director for seven other conferences—and also has been a popular speaker at every conference since 2004—not to mention filling a number of keyleader positions at the same time. In addition to conferences, Parrish helped with, initiated, spoke at, or organized numerous other events, such as coffee chats, and “Not Back to School” picnics.

Parrish also spearheaded a revision of the organization’s bylaws to bring them up to date and took calls for the VaHomeschoolers Helpline for seven years. She was also well known for tapping the right people for volunteer jobs and nurturing them behind the scenes.

This short history was written by Jeanne Faulconer and was included in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of VaHomeschoolers Voice.