Nancy Koen Parish, BA, MSE
Counselor L – Z
Nancy Koen Parish is a counselor and director of counseling at Mountain Home High School. She works with students 10 - 12 whose last names begin with L - Z. The 2011-2012 school year will be Nancy’s fourteenth year in the district moving here from the southwest part of the state in 1998. She will begin her 27th year in education in the fall of 2011.
Nancy graduated high school from Clinton High School in Clinton, Arkansas. She began her college years at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, majoring in sociology and psychology. After taking some time off to start a family, Nancy returned to college at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Arkansas, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Her minors were in education, foreign language, and psychology/sociology. Her first position in education was in the Russellville School District where she taught English for six years. In 1991, Nancy and her family moved to De Queen, Arkansas. There she primarily taught senior English and gifted and talented creative writing for seven years. While teaching in De Queen, Nancy made the four-hour round trip to Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, first to start her Masters of Arts in English and later to complete her Masters in Science Education in Counseling Psychology
Nancy has participated in the ACT testing program for eleven years, taught CPEP (the ACT preparation program) for three years, and has participated in the SAT testing program for five years. She has served as the teacher on the Russellville counseling advisory committee, served as the head senior sponsor for seven years in De Queen and was on the Advisory Committee at Cossatot College there. She also participated in the home-school testing program for several years. She has been involved in twenty-seven years of in-service trainings and workshops. Some of those include Quality Management, Cooperative Learning, Gang Identification, Assertive Discipline, Keys to Safer Schools, Heartbeats, Ford PAS, PathWise Training, and many more. She is currently a member of the American Counseling Association, the Arkansas Counseling Association, and the North Arkansas Twin Lakes Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa.
Nancy is married to her high school sweetheart, Andy Parish, who works in the petroleum industry in Central Arkansas for a company out of Houston, Texas. Nancy has two children-Jeremy Koen and Whitney Koen Corbett, and three step-children—Amanda Parish Sowell, Jared Parish, and Chance Parish. She has two granddaughters - Kenzie Koen and Savannah Koen; four step-granddaughters—Kirsten Parish, Annabelle Sowell, Hannah Parish, and Sarah Parish. She has one grandson Jordan Corbett, and two step- grandsons—Charleston Sowell and Kadence Sowell. With nine grandchildren, Nancy and Andy have a very busy life. Nancy’s father, Coach Bill Koen, is a retired educator, coach, and athletic director. He currently works as a professional football scout for NFL football training camps and does other division one college scouting for the Edmonton Eskimos. Her mother, Glenda Koen, is retired from many years of service in education as well. Nancy and Andy have two puppies that are very important to them - Dixie Belle and Summer (aka Summie).
She has enjoyed the trip in education so far, and she thinks that the next several years will be just as rewarding. When asked to describe her desire to work with high school students, she says the following: “I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t work with high school students. . . Teenagers keep you young at heart, entertained, and in-touch with what is important in life. Don’t ask a teenager for his opinion because he will tell you. I love that raw honesty. One always knows where he stands with a high school student, and I can always live with that.”
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