Ivan C.A. Walks, MD, President and CEO

Ivan C.A. Walks, MD, President and CEO, is a former District of Columbia (DC) Chief Health Officer (CHO) and Director of the city‘s Department of Health (DOH).  During his tenure, he received from then Mayor Anthony Williams a Distinguished Public Service Award for the successful management of the agency’s $1.5 billion budget.  

Under Dr. Walks’ watch, infant mortality rates in the District dropped to an all time low.  He was intimately involved in the design and implementation of the internationally recognized DC Healthcare Alliance. Dr. Walks was also instrumental in the design and execution of a number of community-based forums that focused on raising awareness for public health threats and bringing healthcare education to each District Ward in an audience relevant and culturally sensitive manner. 

Since leaving government, Dr. Walks has led the delivery of IWA technical assistance to and support of the District’s Lead Coordination Initiative.  This work was from within a multi-stakeholder environment and focused on developing prevention/intervention strategies for mitigating and eliminating the causes of lead poisoning among DC’s children.

 In addition, Dr. Walks played a significant part in bringing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the National Urban League together to collaboratively develop a health marketing campaign to curb adolescent obesity among African Americans. That work not only impacted African Americans nationally but also those campaign participants who resided in the Nations’ Capital.

Further, Dr. Walks was the senior IWA resource responsible for instigation of the public-private partnership that resulted in the “MY FAMILY KNOWS” Human Papillomavirus (HPV) public information campaign. The goal was to provide grassroots outreach to the African American and Hispanic American communities within the District of Columbia, promoting needed health education on the threat of HPV infection among young girls and women, the relative merits of early vaccination as a preventative measure, and a DC law mandating vaccine administration to school aged girls.

Dr. Walks is recognized by many Federal, State, and local government leaders as well as health and wellness advocates as an authority on health disparities and the design of intervention strategies.  He is currently providing cultural sensitivity subject matter expertise on an engagement with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). 

On this project, Dr. Walks along with a number of IWA resources are working with the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (MHHD) and Office of Communications to generate H1N1 (Swine Flu) information, materials and communications that are culturally relevant for the distinct and diverse populations across the State.  A component activity of this effort is the development and delivery of Outreach Competency Skills Training to selected community health workers who will be tasked with implementing sustainable minority outreach and technical assistance within their assigned communities.

Dr. Walks was awarded his Doctor of Medicine (MD) by the University of California (UC) at Davis School of Medicine, a Trans-Cultural Psychiatry Fellowship by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Neuropsychiatric Institute, and a Primary Care Policy Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Public Health Service (PHS). He currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Services Management and Leadership at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and an Assistant Professor at the Howard University School of Public Health.