Annise Parker was born and reared in Houston’s Spring Branch area. Annise’s mother worked as a bookkeeper, and her father worked for the Red Cross. The family moved to the U. S. Army base in Mannheim, Germany for two years when Annise was 15. Afterwards, she attended Rice University in 1974 on a National Merit Scholarship and worked several jobs to pay for her room and board. She graduated in 1978, beginning a 20-year career in the oil and gas industry – 18 of them at Houston’s Mosbacher Energy.

Following this period, Annise moved into public service in 1997, as the first openly gay City Council Member to be elected in Houston, Texas. She and her life partner, Kathy Hubbard, have been together since 1990, and they have two adopted children. From 1997 to 2003, Parker held a seat on Houston’s City Council, and then served as the City Controller of Houston for six years. Annise Parker was elected mayor of Houston on December 12, 2009.

In addition to her work in city politics, Parker has been the subject and author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles across the country. Parker is very active in the GLBT Community and the Houston community as a whole. She serves on various governing bodies such as the Board of Directors of the Holocaust Museum Houston and Girls Inc. and the Advisory Boards of the Houston Zoo, the Montrose Counseling Center, Bering Omega Community Services, and Trees for Houston.