Debra Farrar-Parkman is a Consultant & Performer in Korsi's Interactive Comedy & Storytelling program. Touted by the Boston Globe as “one of the most consistently inventive performers” on the Boston comedy scene, Deb has been featured in numerous comedy festivals and competitions throughout the country including Ladies of Laughter, Laugh Your Asheville Off, and the New York and Boston Comedy Festivals. She has been featured on Lifetime’s Girls Night Out, NPR’s Commonwealth Journal, and WCVB’s City Line. Her Divas After Dark comedy showcases were a fan favorite at previous First Night Out New Year’s Eve events. She is the founding producer of and a performer in ColorStruck: Women of Color in Comedy, Boston’s annual showcase featuring a diverse lineup of comediennes.

An Emmy Award-winning producer and writer, Deb began her professional career in Boston’s television industry, working first for WBZ (then an NBC affiliate) in public relations; spending nearly a decade in the newsroom of WCVB (ABC); and winding down her television career in community programming at WGBH (PBS), where she won an Emmy Award for a documentary about grandparents rearing their grandchildren in the age of the drug and AIDS epidemics. She was also the coordinating producer of the critically acclaimed US Favorite Poem Project series, which is now housed in the Library of Congress.

Deb works in the non-profit field as the Director of Development for South End Community Health Center, where she generates 10% of the organization’s $15 million budget. She was the former Chief Development and Communications Officer for Freedom House, a non-profit dedicated to college access for marginalized youth, where she oversaw the organization’s $1.5 million capital campaign. Deb has also worked in development for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and DotWell, a partnership of two Dorchester community health centers.

An advocate for social justice and equity, she currently sits on the Board of the Center for Restorative Justice and is a founding member and former Board Officer of New England Blacks in Philanthropy.