Deborah Klein Walker, EdD, a behavioral sciences researcher, public health leader, and advocate for public health and social justice, has more than 40 years of experience conducting research and evaluation in community settings, and developing and implementing programs. policies and system changes at the local and state levels, She 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. Prior to state service, she was a faculty member for over a decade at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently .

She currently is an Adjunct Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. She is also the Past President of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice (formerly, the American Orthopsychiatric Association); a Board Member of Family Voices, the Institute for Community Health and the Cambridge Health Alliance Foundation and on the Editorial Board of the Maternal and Child Health Journal. She is a former president of the American Public Health Association and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs; 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; a former Trustee of the Cambridge Health Alliance and chair of its Cambridge Health Department subcommittee. She is currently on the Governing Council (representing the American Public Health Association) of the World Federation of Public Health Associations.

Dr. Walker is the author of over 100 peer reviewed articles, 3 books and numerous commentaries. She has been honored by organizations representing maternal and child health, disabilities and at-risk populations.