Eric Gerard Parsons
When Eric is not working on the SAL board, you might find him chilling out to jazz or spending precious time with precious friends. Before he came to SAL, Eric spent eleven years living in Oakland where he was his mother’s caregiver, and where he worked part-time as a parish administrator for an Episcopal church.
Eric’s favorite book as a kid was M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton. It was the first book he had ever read up to that point that had a Black boy as the main character. Right now, Eric’s favorite book is Recitatif by Toni Morrison for its deliberate withholding of racial codes and racialized language.
On his desk, you might find a stack of interior design magazines, correspondence, stationary, a couple of fountain pens, and a week-old Food Section from the New York Times that he has yet to get to. His personal motto is: have a desire to do some good in the world, and create something that makes a difference.