It was during a Women’s and Children’s Alliance volunteer training for rape crisis responders in 1988, that Shelly Parker knew she wanted to be a victim witness coordinator.
As she listened to an Ada County Prosecutor’s victim witness coordinator speak about how they help vulnerable victims navigate the criminal justice system, “I just knew that was something that I wanted to do, and could do,” Shelly Parker said.
Parker, who has worked at the prosecutor’s office for 30 years, had a college degree at the time but was missing the two years of required experience in criminal justice to get the job. Parker began her career as a pre-sentence investigator for the Honorable Judge Gerald Schroeder in 1988, which would set her on track to get the experience she needed to become a prosecutor’s office victim witness coordinator in September 1990.
Since then, Parker’s compassion has directly impacted countless victims in our community, changing their lives for the better. On Wednesday, Sept. 30, she retired as the Victim Witness Administrator after 30 years of dedicated service in the position, becoming the longest serving victim witness coordinator in Ada County.
“It’s the most fulfilling career a person could ever have,” Parker said. “It was just my calling.”
During Parker’s career she started the Victim Witness Program in Juvenile Court, where she worked for eight years, helped pass victims’ rights statutes in the state of Idaho, was called to respond to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and later to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, all before promoting to the Victim Witness Administrator position in 2011. These were some of the proudest moments in her career, she said.
“And, of course, the cases that you work on and all the victims that come along the way are just too many to mention, but they all have taught me something, and I feel so much more enriched by getting to know each and every one of them,” she said.
Decades of memories don’t make it an easy goodbye for Parker.
“I have worked at Ada County over half my life,” Parker said. “It’s not just coworkers that I work with, it really is a family that I work with.”
Even as she leaves, Parker knows the victim witness unit is left in good hands. She said the women she works with are some of the most amazing victim witness coordinators she knows.
During retirement, Parker looks forward to spending time with her family and is welcoming a new grandchild. She couldn’t give up the criminal justice system quite yet, though. She’ll also be working part-time as a parole commissioner.
And though Parker may be retiring, her legacy will live on at the Ada County Courthouse. A victim room on the 3rd floor is dedicated in her honor, for the decades she has put in to serving victims of some of Ada County’s most heinous crimes.
“On behalf of a grateful staff at the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office and a grateful community, we thank you for your dedicated service, Shelly,” said Ada County Prosecutor, Jan Bennetts. “The impact of your work will never be forgotten. Congratulations on your retirement and we all wish you the very best!”