OUR PEOPLE
Donald Parker
Principal
Academic Credentials
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oakland University, 1980
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Automotive, General Motors Institute, 1975
Licenses & Certifications
- PADI Advanced Open Water Scuba Certification
- PADI Certified Open Water Scuba Diver
Additional Education & Training
- Accident Reconstruction - Northwest University Traffic Institute
Professional Honors
- Accident Reconstruction, Northwestern University Traffic Institute (NWTI)
- Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary Society
- Recipient of 2008 Kettering/GMI Alumni Association Award for Engineering Achievement
- Recipient of 2012 SAE Arch T. Colwell Award for outstanding paper (2010-01-0515) presented at SAE
- Recipient of 2015 SAE Forest R. McFarland Award for outstanding contributions to the work of SAE
Professional Affiliations
- Society of Automotive Engineers (member)
- SAE Membership Grading Committee (past)
- SAE Body Engineering/Occupant Protection Committee
- Rollover and Rear Impact Session; session organizer and peer reviewer (past)
- Structural Crashworthiness Session; session organizer and peer reviewer (past)
- Design Optimization, Methods, and Applications Session; session organizer and peer reviewer (past)
- SAE Active Safety Systems Symposium; symposium co-organizer (current)
Based on an extended career in industry and consulting, Mr. Parker has attained a broad level of experience and expertise in mechanical and automotive design engineering, testing, and collision analysis and reconstruction. His wide range of knowledge and skills enable him to answer complex engineering questions and solve unique problems.
Mr. Parker specializes in automotive vehicle design issues, crashworthiness performance analysis, the evaluation of vehicle structures in all types of planar and rollover crashes, and in the design and performance of vehicle components and systems.
Mr. Parker has over 45 years of automotive industry and consulting experience in the design, development, testing, and analysis of domestic and foreign automotive products and components, and investigation and reconstruction of vehicular collisions, including fraudulent or staged collisions. His experience gives him extensive cumulative expertise, including the design, performance, testing, and manufacturing of vehicle body systems and components, energy absorbing frame elements, bumpers, roofs, closures (doors systems, hoods, trunk lids, folding tops), seats, trim and sealing systems. Over the course of his career, Mr. Parker has conducted and/or witnessed and analyzed the results from more than 200 full-scale vehicle crash tests in new product development, FMVSS and foreign certification, accident reconstruction validation, and research. He has also conducted numerous developmental and FMVSS certification tests on component-level items such as roofs, door beams and structures, door latches, door hinges, seat belt anchorages, and bumper systems.
Mr. Parker has provided consulting services in many diverse areas, including product design and validation, design defect claims, rollover/roof crush analysis, collision analysis and reconstruction, identifying vehicular insurance fraud, appropriate repair of damaged automobile bodies, product components such as gas springs, automotive seats, glass sealing and retention systems, door window regulators, door latches/locks, door and decklid/hatch closing systems, heavy truck ingress/egress systems, tow truck operational design, intellectual property validity/infringement issues, vehicle lighting, and organizational management. Mr. Parker's research further extends to assessing the use of alternate materials such as high strength steels, aluminum, composites and structural foams in vehicle structures, practical applications of glazing materials, integration of lithium-ion batteries in vehicle crash architecture, safety and handling of lithium-ion batteries in vehicle development facilities, and in analyzing the engineering design of various other consumer products.
