Long Hours for D.C. Doctor

Dr. Ivan Walks is slumped over in the back seat of a Chevy Suburban, fast asleep. Up front, his driver is headed to a Popeye’s restaurant to pick up the chicken nuggets that the boss has been craving.

It’s 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, and Walks, the District of Columbia’s chief health officer, has had a mere 15 minutes of sleep in the last 36 hours. He hasn’t eaten anything since the night before.

He’s been too busy. Walks, 44, a former Los Angeles resident and county mental health commissioner, is in charge of the district’s response to the anthrax attacks, which have killed two postal workers and hospitalized three other people here.

Over the course of 10 hours Wednesday, he testified before a U.S. Senate committee, met with a colleague about smallpox, held a news conference with District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams, conducted several media interviews and critiqued new treatment suggestions from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At a time when health officials are being criticized for being disorganized, out of touch and unresponsive, Walks is being hailed as a model of openness, candor and poise.

Walks, unlike many other officials, has avoided issuing public assurances that have later proved wrong. And after initial complaints that postal workers were bypassed in the distribution of antibiotics, he went to great lengths to ensure that the district equally treat anyone who is at risk for infection.

To that end, he stressed in numerous interviews last weekend that U.S. Supreme Court justices were taking the same generic antibiotic doxycycline that he was recommending for at-risk mail handlers.

At a Senate committee hearing Wednesday on the safety of the mail system, Walks drew effusive praise from legislators.

“I would hope someday that the whole nation would get the benefit of your services,” said Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.). CNN quickly dubbed Walks a “darling” of the hearings.

Walks’ senior deputy, Dr. Larry Siegel, joked afterward: “I have never seen someone nominated for higher public office by six senators at one time.”

Walks said he learned many of the skills needed to interact with the public in his youth, while attending school and working in Los Angeles.

“I learned a lot in California about working with diverse populations and moving comfortably between people of diverse backgrounds,” he said.

Born in Guyana in South America, Walks moved to South-Central Los Angeles when he was 7. He graduated from Garey High School in Pomona and then joined the Air Force, serving as a medic and ambulance driver from 1976 to 1980.

After returning home, Walks used the GI Bill to take undergraduate courses at USC. He earned his medical degree at UC Davis. While attending school, he worked at a supermarket for more than 10 years.

His parents, both now retired, still live in Southern California. His father, Ivan, is pastor emeritus at South Hills Presbyterian Church, and his mother, Erma, is a former Pomona Unified School District principal.

In the mid-1990s, Walks served as a mental health commissioner in Los Angeles County and later as medical director for managed care for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

From his first day on the health director’s job two years ago, Walks has dealt with one crisis after another. On day one, Hurricane Floyd hit the region, forcing him to work from the district emergency command center. Since then, he’s faced the closing of the city’s public hospital, two nurses strikes, floods, West Nile virus and riots connected to an International Monetary Fund meeting.

Still, the anthrax scare has shattered Walks’ normal routine. He rarely sees his wife, Dawn, and two children, Emani, 6, and Ivan, 2. He’s always eating on the run. And now he has a bodyguard to protect him when he goes out in public.

“If I could just come in regular hours, that would be a vacation,” he said. “I’m tired of being tired.”

On Wednesday, Walks spent several hours reviewing CDC recommendations that call for most postal workers and private mail handlers to stop taking their antibiotics. He says he wants to be cautious about making such a public pronouncement, mindful of the questions arising from a 61-year-old New York woman’s death from inhalation anthrax.

“We’ve got this woman in New York, and no one has a good reason why--or even an explanation why--she got sick,” Walks said in an interview. “This is not the right time to tell people everything is fine.

“Who knows what this woman’s case will turn out to be. It could be something we haven’t seen before that changes everything we’ve been recommending.”

Members of Walks’ inner circle, who are also working 18-hour days or longer, say the challenge is worth it.

“You can see the fruit of your labor,” said Ted Gordon, chief operating officer of the Department of Health. “We’re on the front line out there, dealing with personal health needs. We see the 15,000 faces that come through these lines to get their medicine. We know that there’s tremendous anxiety. We need to do what we can to protect them. That’s true public health.”