Position/Where: Anesthesiology Resident, Research Scholars Program, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis
Career Highlights:
Taught physiology to undergraduate students in the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.
Presented research findings in Geneva, Switzerland and Cambridge, England
Received funding for research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UNCF/Merck Science Initiative
Awards:
Barnes-Jewish Hospital Residents and Fellows Diversity Initiative Grant Recipient
Washington University Scholars Program (Department of Anesthesiology)
UNCF/Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowship
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, Individual Fellowship
Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society Inductee
Homer P. Cooper Award
Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Honors Society Inductee
Kellogg Science Award
NASA Scholar
LaTina Sullivan Leadership Award
Education:
Doctor of Medicine – May 2010 from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.
Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics and Genomics, May 2009 from Duke
Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, Summa Cum Laude, May 2002, from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee
Personal:
Her parents are Mac and Brenda Walker of Topeka, Kan. Her sister, Angela Diggs; lives in Petersburg, Va.
Blake is a member of Christ Our King Community Church, Durham, N.C.
She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
St. Louis Connection:
She grew up in Harrisburg, Pa. but later moved to Topeka, where she attended Topeka High School. After completing undergraduate, medical and graduate school, I moved to St. Louis to train in anesthesiology with the Washington University School of Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Your journey to success:
Since I was 5 years old, the answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was always the same– “I want to be a doctor.” As the child of a single mother, resources were slim but by the grace of God, they were always enough. What was in abundance, however, was love and support. My mother began to prepare me mentally to become a physician while in middle school. “You know, your grades in high school count so you have to do your best to get straight A’s then” she would often tell me. So in high school, I vowed to do my absolute best. As a result of diligent study and relentless application to scholarships, I had acquired what amounted to a full ride to college.
I started at the University of Kansas (KU) as a biochemistry major, but after attending a summer pre-med program at Fisk, a small private black college in Nashville, Tennessee, I transferred in the middle of my sophomore year. Fisk promised – and delivered – more individualized mentoring and access to research programs – as well as a full scholarship. It was at Fisk University that I fell in love with research.
My first summer research program was through NASA, where I investigated gold particles on an atomic level and how they change when superheated. I actually created new knowledge and thought that was too cool.
The next summer, I did biochemistry research at Meharry Medical College and started to ask novel questions – and design experiments to answer those very questions, again, creating new knowledge. I knew I wanted to help individuals as a physician, but it was then that I realized that I could help millions through medical research. As a result, pursuit of both an MD and a PhD began. I had not heard of MD/PhD programs until I asked an advisor if it was possible to do both. Lo and behold, not only was it possible, but if you were accepted to the program, all of medical school and graduate school were paid for – that was my kind of program! Again, through prayer, study and discipline, the hard work “paid off” – I was accepted and chose the MD/PhD program at Duke University.
No one would ever describe medical school as easy. Interesting, challenging and rewarding are much more accurate. Though there were days when sleep was more of a hopeful wish than a reality, I always knew I was in the right field – I was pursuing my dream and seeing it become a reality. After two years of medical school I started the PhD program in Genetics and Genomics where I made reversible drugs out of RNA. If medicines are reversible, they are by nature safer as they can be “turned off.” These same drugs may now lead to new treatments for breast cancer and stroke.
After completing graduate school and medical school, I moved to St. Louis to pursue training in anesthesiology in a combined clinical residency and research program. Currently, I am most interested in pharmacogenetics (how differences in peoples DNA determines how their body reacts to drugs) and plan to make personalized medicine in anesthesiology a reality.
Hopefully my life reflects the fact that it matters little from whence you came – what matters is where you are going and what you are doing to get there. As Henry Ford said, “whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.”
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