IMPACT Team
Garth N. Walker, MD, MPH
Co-Founder (On Leave)
Dr. Walker is an academic Emergency Physician, public health leader/operator, and founder in Chicago with academic, non-profit, and public/private sector experience. Dr. Walker is a recognized healthcare expert where he has been interviewed and quoted on several major local and national news networks such as MSNBC, ChicagoSuntimes, ABC , and others. Dr. Walker received his bachelors in economics and minor in chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago, master of public health at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, emergency medicine training at the University of Chicago, and served as an Health Equity and economics research Fellow with the Northwestern Buehler Center of Health Economics and Policy through the Center for Health Equity Transformation and Northwestern Emergency Department. Dr. Walker delivers emergency care at the Jesse Brown Veteran Affairs Hospital and served as the former Deputy director of the Illinois Department of Public Health where he advised and served as internal and external representative for public health strategies during CoVID-19 around vaccine hesitancy and operations and Men's Health. Dr. Walker is an Assistant Professor at the Northwestern Emergency Department.
Dr. Walker’s academic accomplishments include first author peer reviewed scientific articles focused on social determinants of health, firearm injury, and healthcare disparities as well as runner up for top paper with the journal of healthcare management. Dr. Walker also reviews for several major scientific journals within emergency medicine and serves on the research counsel for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM), a national non-partisan foundation aimed to support research for effective firearm policy.
Dr. Walker’s civic involvement includes a mayoral appointment to the city of Chicago's equity advisory board, Co-Founder of IMPACT4HC and appointments to several local and national non profit boards-Imerman Angels, whos mission is to provide comfort and understanding for all cancer fighters, survivors, previvors and caregivers through a personalized, one-on-one connection with someone who has been there; and Thresholds, whos mission is to provides healthcare, housing, employment, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illnesses and substance use disorders in Illinois each year. Dr. Walker is an alumnus of Urban League IMPACT program, Leadership Greater Chicago, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.