Deborah Klein Walker

Dr. Walker is a behavioral sciences researcher, public health leader, and advocate for public health and social justice, with more than 45 years of experience conducting research and evaluation in community settings and developing and implementing programs and policies at the local, state and federal levels. In her current role Dr. Walker is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health and in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine in the Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the Arbor Research Board of Directors, Dr. Walker was Vice President and Senior Fellow at Abt Associates for 13 years after spending 16 years at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she was the Maternal and Child Health Title V Director, Acting Director for Substance Abuse Services, and Associate Commissioner for Programs and Prevention.

Dr. Walker is currently a Board Member of Family Voices, and the Institute for Community Health and on the Editorial Board of the Maternal and Child Health Journal. She was a faculty member for over ten years at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education; a former president of the American Public Health Association, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, and the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice (formerly, the American Orthopsychiatric Association); a founder of New England SERVE and the Research Consortium on Children with Chronic Conditions; a former Board Member of the Massachusetts Public Health Association and Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies; and a former Trustee of the Cambridge Health Alliance and chair of its Cambridge Health Department subcommittee. Dr. Walker has authored over 100 peer reviewed articles, three books, and a number of commentaries. She has been honored by organizations representing maternal and child health, disabilities, and at-risk populations.