Over a 40-year career, BJ Walker has been a change agent in education and human services. A public official since 1995, she has served in the administrations of Governors in Georgia and Illinois and with the Mayor of the City of Chicago, managing portfolios that at times included child welfare, public health, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, TANF, childcare, SNAP, Medicaid eligibility, aging, and child support.

At Deloitte Consulting LLP, she served for five years as a Managing Director in their public sector practice. In 2021, after featuring her effective change management work in Georgia in the first edition, FranklinCovey asked her to write the Foreword to the second edition of their Wall Street Journal #1 best-selling business strategy book, The Four Disciplines of Execution. She now manages a consulting practice, In the Public Way, Inc. which serves as a platform (inthepublicway.com) for supporting change management efforts focused on major public sector issues.

In 1993, BJ Walker was awarded a prestigious yearlong resident Fellowship with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. BJ has an MA degree in American History from Northwestern University and a BA in Religion from Mt Holyoke College.  She has served as a board member for over 15 years with The National Algebra Project. She serves on the Board of the Stewards of Change Institute, based in Washington, DC and on the Board of Directors for Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.  She is a long-term resident of the Austin community on the west side of Chicago and involved in a number of community-based efforts there.