Victoria Walker, MD, FAAFP, CMD
Candidate - Vice President
Candidate Bio
Victoria Walker, MD, CMD, FAAFP is the Clinical and Medical Officer for Avel eCare Senior Care. This is a role that leverages telemedicine tools and novel service models to reduce barriers to care and improve the quality of life for residents and on-site staff members in post-acute and long-term care settings. She also serves as the medical director for Avera Health Long Term Care Business unit and the community of Morningside Heights in Marshall, Minnesota.
Dr. Walker lives in Vermillion, a small university town in southeastern South Dakota. She received her medical degree from the University of South Dakota and completed her family medicine residency at Washington Hospital in Washington, PA. Her career path has included a decade of full scope rural family medicine, a year working abroad in Victoria, Australia as a locum tenens GP, 5 years as medical director of geriatric psychiatric units at the State Hospital and 7 years as chief medical and quality officer for a national nonprofit provider. It was during her time working in the geriatric psychiatric units that she first became involved in AMDA. Her favorite career achievements include ongoing training and advocacy for access to psychiatric care, enacting comprehensive well-being programming across multiple care settings, and dramatically improving influenza employee vaccination rates.
She has been an active member in AMDA The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine since 2011. She served on the board as the state chapter representative from 2020-2023. She currently chairs the Public Policy Committee and serves on the telemedicine and clinical issues subcommittees, is a reviewer for JAMDA and is a member of the Governance Committee. She has also been active in the state chapter, serving in a variety of roles over the years, including the education committee and representing the chapter in the house of delegates. Dr. Walker is board vice-chair for Advancing Excellence in Long-Term Care Collaborative and is a member of the physician Honor Medical Society, Alpha Omega Alpha.
While completing a Health and Aging Policy Fellowship in 2014-16, Dr. Walker was the national coordinator for the Family Caregiver Platform Project and worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to partner with the provider community to reduce adverse events in post-acute and long-term care. She served the state of South Dakota on the Elder Abuse Task Force, which resulted in creation of Elder Abuse resources within the state Attorney General’s office, as well as a Behavioral Health Task Force which led to the creation of a dedicated acute geriatric admission unit at the state hospital. She also represented PALTC medicine at the White House Summit on Antimicrobial Stewardship.
She is a clinical associate professor at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, where she particularly enjoys serving as Healer’s Art facilitator and introducing students to the fundamentals of QAPI. In her spare time, she enjoys digging in the dirt in her prairie and woodland garden and can be found on the sidelines cheering on the University of South Dakota or reading stories to her grandchildren.
Candidate Statement
Being nominated for the vice president role is a tremendous honor. You have a choice between two candidates who both love this organization and have the experience, skills, and desire to do an excellent job. The good news is that you cannot really go wrong!
My reasons for accepting the nomination are not unique: a desire “pay it forward” in gratitude to those who have inspired us to this work, the comradery of working with and learning from colleagues who are similarly inspired, and a commitment to applying the lessons of a lifetime towards the benefit of the whole.
Every few decades there is significant momentum for change, and we are in one of those times. Calls for reform, accountability, and redesign butt up against the workforce challenges and convoluted economic drivers. It is especially important that we have an unwavering focus on providing the resources that empower patients, residents, families, and professionals to infuse quality and meaning into the daily work of living and dying.
My paid work and volunteer activities over the past 2 decades have honed skills in communication and navigating complex systems that I believe would be valuable to the Society. I have been fortunate to wear many different hats, from family doctor in a critical access hospital, inpatient geriatric psychiatry medical director, national chief medical officer and vice president for quality, fellow in health and aging policy, caregiver advocate, educator, author, and international practitioner. Within AMDA I have worked locally and nationally with committees, state chapters, the board, government entities and external stakeholders to move forward the priorities of our members. Several years serving on and then leading the Public Policy Steering Committee has helped me understand the positions and relationships of the Society, which will be extremely helpful in the Vice President role. I carefully listen, ask clarifying questions, translate complex ideas into relatable language and create connections between individuals and groups to achieve common goals.
Some of the challenges that we must navigate include the politicization of medical care, helping clinicians practice through the transition to value based payment models in a way that does not leave underserved populations behind, simplifying the access to resources/making it easier to find the valuable content curated by the Society, and preparing to serve the growing percentage of the population living to advanced age in need of supportive care from a smaller workforce. The Society also is considering foundational membership questions, including evolving the infrastructure and governance to foster interdisciplinary, diverse membership and membership outside the United States. These are challenges that will require us to take thoughtful and collaborative approaches to reach the full potential of the Society, and I stand ready to focus on this work.
Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions about how I would approach specific issues, please feel free to reach out to me at vwalker@mac.com.