Michael Parks says his personality is on display throughout his office. He says he’s a proud native of New Mexico, an avid outdoorsman, active in the community and his church, and adds that he’s enjoyed living in the Bryan-College Station area for the last 25 years.
Parks is the executive director for the Brazos Valley Council of Governments, which he said is kind of a mall for public services. Parks started there in October 2002 and has been in his current role since March 2021. The council assists Brazos Valley residents in areas including workforce development, housing, transportation, homeland security, indigent health care and regional 911.
“We are helping people get off all public assistance and off on their own,” Parks said. “It’s really cool when you think about you’re helping people rise up out of poverty and become middle-class [citizens and] part of our economy. We’re very grateful that we get to do that every day.”
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My wife’s name is Fanette. Been married 32 years to the same woman and every day is a better day. … We went on a cruise and shot that when I still had hair. She’s the inspiration behind all of these family photos. She loves to have family photos, so we try to do stuff that’s not a standard portrait. Action shots, captions and things.
My oldest daughter passed away when she was 8. Her name is Miciah. That was a dark period in our life, but we survived and the Lord has helped us through that. You don’t know what’s coming, and you’ve just got to go through whatever you face. It was a pretty big deal. Her heart had failed and she had gotten a transplant that just didn’t make it. ... Her birthday is May 20. Her favorite meal was spaghetti, so we have spaghetti.
I believe in being involved in the community. For a couple of years, I was on the Bryan Planning and Zoning Commission. I always believe in serving and giving back where I need to and where I can. What’s kind of been my mantra is it’s not about me, it’s about someone else.
This is what I used to see every day when I woke up. Those are the Organ Mountains outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The tallest part of it is about 9,500 feet, and on the backside of that is pine trees in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Because of the elevation and because it’s on the eastern side of the mountain, it has more moisture. There’s a state park up there, and then 50 miles [east] is White Sands. So you can play in the snow in the morning, and then on wet years, you can drive to White Sands and play on the beach, because the water comes up between the dunes and you can sit out there and play beach volleyball all in the same day. It’s kind of fun. A lot of people think in the desert there’s nothing there, but I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of life in the desert. You’ve just got to know where to look for it.
When you have a career in public service and you go to these events, there’s an event for everything — a conference, a convention. They all have these buttons and pins, and I used to have all of them cluttered everywhere. So I said, “You know what, I need to put these somewhere, because otherwise, what good is it?” … Right in the middle is our 50th anniversary pin. Then other councils of government in the state started copying what we were doing, so I’ve got a few of those. I’m big on transportation, so a lot of things back early in my career, we did transportation stuff. But I was obviously from New Mexico, so I have that [pin]. … I don’t know if I have a favorite. It’s part of my background now. I see it every day, but people that come in, it’s like, “Oh, wow,” when they see it for the first time.
I was Little League president at Bryan United for many years, and my son went through T-ball all the way up until he couldn’t play anymore, and started playing for Bryan High School. He thought he might try football, and he led the team in tackles as a linebacker. Between him and my wife, they’re the big sports fans in our family. We’ve enjoyed every aspect of this community.
