Frances Shani Parker

Frances Shani Parker is an award-winning writer, eldercare consultant, hospice volunteer, and former school principal. She is author of Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes, a groundbreaking account of her insights and experiences in Detroit, Michigan nursing homes and eldercare in general. She includes the often-missing voices of urban older adults, especially those of people of color.

Ms. Parker also writes popular Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog including topics on aging, eldercare, hospice, nursing homes, dementia, caregiving, death, and bereavement. You can read her blog in various languages, search for topics including hundreds of posts she has written, and subscribe to her blog. An excellent featured speaker locally and nationally and a successful workshop facililtator, she serves on the board of the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology and mentors graduate gerontology students in Detroit, Michigan.

An innovative educator, Ms. Parker has consulted in various school districts in America on how to implement schoolwide service-learning, a teaching and learning approach that connects classroom learning with meeting community needs. Under her principalship, her school became a national model implementing service-learning classroom action research related to school partnerships with nursing homes and other community organizations. She devotes a chapter in her book to the similarities between schools and nursing homes, the importance of intergenerational relationships, and detailed descriptions of how to implement these practices in other schools. 

Among many awards Ms. Parker has received are writing awards from Writer's Digest, the Poetry Society of Michigan, the Detroit Writer's Guild, Broadside Press, and the New Orleans Public Library. Education awards include the National Service-Learning Trailblazer Award presented by the National Service-Learning Partnership for her role in expanding service-learning in schools and communities in America, the Educator of the Year Award presented by the Wayne State University Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, an international professional fraternity for educators, and Outstanding Education Administrator Award presented by the Metropolitan Detroit Alliance of Black School Educators (open to all races). She has also received various service awards.