Bailus Walker: Environmental change

Bailus Walker spent his early childhood in a small rural Southern community, where he witnessed an array of environmental risk factors, like substandard housing, poor water quality, and improper waste disposal.

The challenges people face when it comes to health continued to interest Walker during his life and he eventually decided to go to graduate school in public health. After getting an M.P.H from Michigan, Walker looked at Minnesota for his Ph.D.

"I chose the University of Minnesota School of Public Health because I had high regard for the African-American leaders who had graduated from the University," says Walker.

Walker's degrees have led him to be named director of the Michigan Department of Health and Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was the first non-physician appointed to both of those positions. He also served as head of the occupational health standards directorate of OSHA.

"My public health degree from Minnesota created opportunities that I never dreamed of as an...undergraduate," says Walker.

(Updated: June 2009)

Environmental Health Sciences