Emory Medicine Professor H. Kenneth Walker Receives 2018 Emory Medal

Kenneth Walker, MD, professor of medicine and neurology in the Emory University School of Medicine, and professor of public health in the Rollins School of Public Health, has been awarded the 2018 Emory Medal – Emory’s highest alumni award. Presented by the Emory University Alumni Association, the award ceremony will be held on March 1.

Walker has dedicated his 60-year career to clinical care of patients at Grady Memorial Hospital and to global health outreach in the Republic of Georgia.

He obtained his associate’s degree from Oxford, graduated from Emory College, and then earned his MD from Emory School of Medicine. From there, Walker completed his post-graduate training at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1971, where he has served as assistant chief of medicine for the Grady Health System.

In addition to his achievement as a physician, Walker has been committed to the education and training of medical students and has directed Emory’s internal medicine residency program, junior medicine clerkship, and sophomore clinical methods course. Several graduates of the Emory medicine program are currently practicing at hospitals throughout Georgia, and many hold critical leadership positions. Walker has personally trained more internal medicine residents than any other physician at Emory.

Walker has written or edited a number of books on physical diagnosis, organizing medical data and evaluating the surgical patient. Particularly, he was instrumental in the establishment of a pioneering electronic medical record at Grady Hospital. He has also served as a member, chair and senior consultant on the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine since 1992.

From local to global, Walker’s medical contribution has extended beyond national boards. For more than 25 years, as executive director of Partners for International Development, he has led the Atlanta-Tbilisi Partnership, a collaboration between educational and health care institutions in the Republic of Georgia and Atlanta.

Walker’s leadership also has resulted in the development of health care management education for mid-level hospital administrators in the Republic of Georgia; establishing a modern emergency room; training practicing nurses and planning a nursing school; setting up a Women’s Wellness Center; working with Georgian scientists and physicians in AIDS and tuberculosis; and assessing the country’s libraries. He is principal investigator of a grant establishing emergency medicine as a specialty in Georgia, and of a grant to improve the nursing profession.

Click here to read more about Walker’s accomplishments and dedication to his field and Emory University.