Award-winning student-athlete and dedicated NICU nurse Shelby Parker is this year’s Outstanding Alumnus Athlete.

An accomplished athlete, Shelby played on the UC Irvine women’s soccer team from 2015 to 2018. She helped the Anteaters achieve three consecutive winning seasons, including three trips to the Big West Tournament.

In 2018, Shelby was named to the All-Big West second team after playing in all 19 matches and scoring five goals, including a game-winning double overtime goal against Cal Poly, which earned her the Big West Offensive Player of the Week.

She is a natural leader on the field, and her contributions off the field are equally impressive. Shelby served on the UC Irvine Student-Athlete Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2020, including as co-president in 2018–2019, where she helped prepare student-athletes for life after sports.

She was named UC Irvine’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2018 and served as the Big West Conference’s representative to the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), as well as representing the National SAAC on the Division I Strategic Vision and Planning Committee.

Beyond her passion for soccer, Shelby is dedicated to helping others. From an early age, she knew she wanted to become a nurse.

She credits the support she received as a student-athlete at UC Irvine with providing her the time, resources and encouragement to pursue both her athletic and professional goals. Shelby graduated in 2019 with a B.S. in public health sciences, earning Dean’s List honors and logging over 100 hours as a patient experience intern with UCI Health. She continued her education at UC Irvine, earning her M.S.N. in nursing in 2022 with a focus on community and population health.

Since graduation, Shelby has worked as a neonatal intensive care nurse, first in San Diego at what is now Rady Children’s Health. In 2025, she began her current role in the NICU at UC San Diego Health, where she finds endless inspiration from her patients and their families. She also finds strength in the love and support of her own family and the joy she feels as a wife to David and a mother to their son, Lawson.