James Parrish earned a BA in Speech Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has more than 30 years of development and administrative experience in higher education and the nonprofit sector. He has worked for George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Christopher Newport University, Stumpf & Associates, ART 180, The Valentine Museum, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more than 20 years, James also served as a leader in the arts, co-founding the James River Film Society and Bijou Film Center, and teaching undergraduate classes in experimental filmmaking and film history at VCU and Super 8 filmmaking at the Hand Workshop Art Center (now Visual Arts Center of Richmond). In recognition for his contributions to the arts and independent film, James was selected as a Professional Development Fellow for the 57th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar in 2011, honored as one of Style Weekly’s “Top 40 Under 40” in 2006, and awarded the Theresa Pollak Prize for Photography/Film in 2005.
James is a long-distance runner, musician, juggler, and motorcyclist; and, once, a long time ago, he was a stand-up and improv comedian.