White House Appoints ICEP member Garth Walker for Class of White House Fellows

ICEP member Garth Walker, MD, has been named White House Fellow, Office of the Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services.

He is an emergency physician at Jesse Brown VA Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University.  In 2020, Dr. Walker was one of the featured speakers at the ICEP webinar series on Structural Racism and Social Justice. He spoke on physician-led advocacy efforts.

From whitehouse.gov:

Garth is an academic public health expert and physician leader working to eliminate structural barriers which limit marginalized communities’ access to quality healthcare. He is Deputy Director at the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University, and an Emergency Physician at Jesse Brown Veteran Affairs Hospital. At IDPH, Garth leads on key statewide health issues. He drives strategy on men’s health and co-leads the state’s response to the opioid crisis. During COVID-19, he developed messaging to address vaccine hesitancy and established a statewide town hall program, targeting marginalized communities. To provide public health information about COVID-19, he has been featured on news networks, including MSNBC, ABC, and Yahoo. Garth has published for scientific journals addressing gun violence and opioids. He has also written various op-eds for The Chicago Sun-Times, Forbes, and other publications, with a focus on social determinants of health. Garth is a mayoral appointment for Chicago’s equity advisory board, an Economic Club of Chicago member, a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, and Urban League IMPACT Fellow. He earned his B.A. in Economics and M.D. from University of Illinois, his M.P.H. from Northwestern, and clinical training from University of Chicago.