Bailus Walker - Environmental Health Sciences

“My public health degree from Minnesota created opportunities that I never dreamed of as an unfocused undergraduate,” says Bailus Walker, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of environmental and occupational medicine at Howard University College of Medicine and the President of the American Lung Association of the District of Columbia.

Dr. Walker spent his early childhood in a small rural community in the South where he witnessed an array of environmental risk factors, from substandard housing, poor water quality, and improper waste disposal to name a few. This sparked his interest in public health.

“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 Dr. Walker. He says his career has been greatly enhanced with his public health degree. Positions have included 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 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The former president of the American Public Health Association, Dr.Walker is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology. He recently served as chairman of Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ health policy council and the city’s health services reform commission.