Born Teresa Anne Goddard, and raised in a large, close-knit family in the small mountain town of Elizabethton, Tennessee, Terri grew to appreciate the value and importance of those closest to her. After her first year in college, she took some time away from her schoolwork and married her high school sweetheart, Richard Parker. Upon graduation from college, Richard was commissioned into the U.S. Army. While Terri found life as an officer’s wife and mother of two daughters to be quite challenging, it was during this time that she began to develop and refine the entertaining and cooking skills she still enjoys today. While Richard was completing his tour of duty overseas, Terri decided it was time to return to her studies.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Family and Consumer Sciences (area concentration in Nutrition), at East Tennessee State University, she worked as a clinical nutritionist in hospitals in the Chicago area and in Connecticut. Her love of nutrition led her to pursue a Master of Science degree in Nutritional Biochemistry from The University of Bridgeport. Then after a life-changing experience with Jesus Christ, she returned to school, driven by a thirst for knowledge of God’s Word, and received a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena, California. Currently, Terri lives with her husband, Richard, in the Atlanta area and works as a college professor of both Human Nutrition and Comparative Religions. She has the unique ability to combine her seemingly incompatible professional fields of Science and Religion, not only in her teaching, but also in her writing. In addition to Thought for Food, Terri also authored a family cookbook entitled Table Talk.