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Deborah Walker, shown here (back row, center) visiting a clinic in Uganda, says she’s in public health because it is “the practice of social justice.”
pregnant again.) Though Walker has just begun designing her approach, it will include linking women to needed services such as family planning, mental health, and counseling; encouraging insurers to cover health visits; and educating women to take folic acid for the prevention of spina bifida. Walker is also leading a five-year evaluation of a new Department of Health and Human Services program that’s geared
toward improving healthy child development in six states across the country. Among other things, it will provide home visits, parent support, and development screening in primary-care offices—services that are not covered by Medicaid.
there to assure the health of everyone. And only the government entity has that mandate,” she says. “You can do all you want from the private sector, but you’re still not responsible for every single person in that community.”
Though she loves her work at Abt Associates, Walker says there’s nothing like working in the government sector, where people are driven by the same social mission to improve others’ lives. “Public health is
What would you ask President Obama to do for public health?
to my office be healthy.’ I mean it on a bigger level—you have to have support in the community and address all the social determinants of health. You make sure that kids have a safe way to walk to school, which addresses the obesity epidemic. You make sure the price of tobacco is high so kids don’t smoke.”
Address prevention. “A lot of people say ‘prevention,’ but they mean, ‘let’s help this person who came
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