Parkinson is a biology professor who teaches non-majors introductory biology and microbiology. She developed and taught the Bio1B equivalent course (MCELLBIX19B) at UCB extension, where she has also taught Medical Microbiology, Genetics, and Molecular Cell Biology. Parkinson completed FLP training in 2019–2020 and participated in the BePALS (Best Practices in Accelerated Learning in STEM) program (Sp 2019).