Health Professions Coordinator
Authors: Stuart Walker
Publisher: Saunders, 1997
Authors: Stuart Walker
Publisher: Saunders, 1999
After a 38-year career with the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. T. Stuart Walker has joined the 91ÇÑ×Ó staff as the Health Professions Coordinator.
Dr. Walker grew up in the jungles of northeast India, where his physician father, Dr. Thomas Walker, led the Burroughs Memorial Hospital in Alipur (Assam) and was chief medical officer for the Makunda Leprosy Hospital.
As a youngster, Dr. Stuart Walker developed a profound interest in infection and immunity as he accompanied his father on sick calls from village to village. He witnessed patients with tuberculosis, leprosy, smallpox, dengue fever, kala azar, Japanese encephalitis, tsutsugamushi disease, and malaria and became fascinated with the possibility of understanding these diseases in a more profound way. He also saw how lives were transformed by compassionate medical care and by the good news of the Gospel.
Dr. Walker attended Cedarville University and then earned a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the Indiana University School of Medicine. Desiring to do clinically-relevant research on the pathogenesis of emerging infectious diseases, he pursued research fellowships in Rickettsiology at the University of Virginia College of Medicine and the University of South Alabama School of Medicine. His postdoctoral research focused on typhus and Carrion’s disease.
Dr. Walker moved to Muncie in 1979 to teach IU medical students and establish a research program. He was continuously funded by the National Institute of Health for 20 years and worked on a wide range of topics, including the pathogenesis of typhus, clinical aspects of rocky mountain spotted fever, pathology of lupus anticoagulants, efficacy and mechanisms of new antibiotics, pathogenic aspects of meningococcal meningitis, endothelial function, thrombosis, and the pathogenesis of bacillary angiomatosis and peliosis hepatis in AIDS patients. He published papers in Infection and Immunity, the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and other pertinent journals in the field.
For more than 35 years, Dr. Walker was Course Director for the Medical Microbiology and Immunology course taught to IU medical students. He helped form the statewide curriculum for infection and immunity and helped write the new curriculum the IUSM currently uses. He also taught portions of the Pathology Course. Dr. Walker was a member of the committee that developed the Competencies that form the basis for the current curriculum. Additionally, he was one of the authors of the statewide exam for Microbiology and Immunology. He wrote two medical school textbooks in their entirety for W.B. Saunders.
Dr. Walker was a member of the IUSM Admissions Committee for almost 15 years. He established Muncie as an interview site for IUSM Admissions and recruited and trained all of the local interviewers. He became Assistant Dean and Director of the Muncie Campus of the IUSM in 2004 and held this position for the next 9 years, during which time he was promoted to Associate Dean. In this position, he led the academic and research missions of the regional campus. He worked with IU Health-BMH and IUSM to conceive, raise money for, and design the Edmund F. Ball Medical Education Building, which is housed on the Muncie campus and includes clinics, research labs, classrooms, and a state-of-the-art simulation facility. Dr. Walker retired from the Dean’s position in 2013 and from the IUSM in 2017. Besides his current role at Taylor, he is Professor Emeritus within the Indiana University School of Medicine and Ball State University.
I came to Taylor after 38 years as a medical school professor, dean, and medical research scientist. As a long-time member of the Admissions Committee of the IU School of Medicine—as well as being the chief academic officer of a medical school campus—I have interviewed hundreds of prospective medical students, and have served as faculty mentor for many medical and graduate students. I am thrilled to now be able to use this experience and expertise to help young men and women studying at Taylor fulfill their dreams of becoming a medical professional.
Having grown up as an MK in remote northeast India, my wife and I love helping international students acclimate to the language and culture in the US. I also love playing guitar, have been a competitive golfer, bike a lot, love to learn languages, travel quite a bit overseas, am a voracious reader (particularly mysteries, theology, humor and history), love pre-1960 movies, am an avid photographer, am an IU basketball fan, enjoy track and field, enjoy trekking, and love being with my family and the international students we have sponsored.
