Catrena Hughes-Parker: A fountain of wisdom
Blackville, S.C., a town of a little more than one thousand residents, has earned national acclaim as the home of Healing Springs, a natural water source believed to be a fountain of health and healing.
Born and reared within a town mostly comprised of her relatives, lives Catrena Hughes-Parker, the District 6 representative on the Barnwell County Consolidated School District Board of Trustees. Hughes-Parker is on the mend from two knee replacements which ended her extensive career as a law enforcement officer and as a soldier in the U.S. Army, where she served in the Gulf War’s Operation Desert Storm. Though she wanted to continue working, the timing of her injury-induced early retirement turned out to be of benefit, according to Hughes-Parker.
“COVID came a few years later,” she said. “It (early retirement) offered me the opportunity to be home with my child at a time when they were doing homeschooling.”
The time off since has given Hughes-Parker occasion to reflect on how her education and career paths paved the way for her service on the school board.
After graduating from Blackville-Hilda High School, Hughes-Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and was soon after deployed to the Persian Gulf. Upon her return to the states, she enrolled at S.C. State University and majored in criminal justice. After graduation, she worked for the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) as a corrections officer, as a deputy with the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office and as a canine officer (explosives and drug dog handler) for Centerra at Savannah River Site until her retirement.
“The comradery dealing with law enforcement – you actually get close with them because you know these (are) people you might need to call for your backup,” said Hughes-Parker. “So, it’s like a family. It was different so I enjoyed it.”
She said one of the keys to her long-term, successful career in law enforcement is found in one word – respect.
“You just have to give everybody respect,” said Hughes-Parker. “I’ve never had an issue.”
Hughes-Parker knew, unlike school board service, if she wanted to make a positive impact as a law enforcement officer, she couldn’t do it in Blackville.
“I told myself I didn’t want to work in the town I grew up in because I knew it would be hard for me to do my job,” she said.
By the time she completed her vast military service abroad and domestically, Hughes-Parker had earned the rank of Captain.
Though her military career ended, the relationships fostered over the years have remained.
“You go many places,” she said. “You meet a lot of people, and they become lifetime friends.”
Her natural inclination toward coalition and consensus building is serving Hughes-Parker in her first term on the school board. She ran on the platform of being a bridge and voice of reason.
She and her husband, Anthony, have a daughter enrolled in the district and two sons attending college. This daughter of a Baptist preacher and a public education support staff worker, said in all of her doing in law enforcement, with her family, in education and in the military, the goal is and has always been to exercise her faith and treat people fair.
“In everything you do, you have to think about (if) it is right or wrong,” she said. “If you have a conscience, I don’t think you can treat somebody badly and then go home, and it not bother you.”