Education:
B.S. Criminal Justice, Central Missouri State University , 1971

M.A. International Strategic Studies, Naval War College , 1990

M.A. Management, Salve Regina University , 1990  

Accomplishments:
William Parrish recently joined the VCU faculty where he will be working to assist in the development of a Homeland Security and Emergency Planning curriculum. Prior to his arrival at VCU he served in the Department of Homeland Security in several senior level positions, including the Department’s Senior Representative to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; acting Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis in the Department’s Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate (IAIP); the first Associate Director for Homeland Security at the Presidential directed Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) and as special assistant to the Secretary of Homeland Security.  

In October 2001, Mr. Parrish established the first Office of Anti-Terrorism in the U.S. Customs Service. As the Commissioner of Customs’ senior advisor for anti-terrorism programs, Parrish directed and managed the Office of Anti-Terrorism’s efforts to coordinate policy, programs, training, and matters relating to combating terrorism in order to ensure that the Customs Service maximized its anti-terrorism efforts.  
Parrish, a retired United States Marine Colonel, commanded the Marine Corps Security Forces, which was comprised of approximately 4000 Marines serving worldwide to protect sensitive U.S. government installations. A special anti-terrorism unit, the Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST), was part of Parrish’s command and received special recognition for security missions in Bahrain following the attack on Khobar Towers .