MACON – Dr. Jean R. Sumner, dean of Mercer University School of Medicine, recently appointed Terri Walker as director of career counseling, a division of student affairs.
“Career counseling is an important component that supports access to information, experience and guidance as students choose their areas of work,” said Dr. Sumner. “Terri is uniquely qualified to lead these vital services. Having someone with her talent and ability in this position will add a level of needed service. I am delighted she is willing to take on this important responsibility.”
In addition to career counseling, Walker will assist the school in remaining available to graduates and the programs they enter. She also will help to encourage students, especially those who leave the state for postgraduate training, to choose mission-compliant locations in Georgia to practice. Additionally, Walker will serve as a liaison to rural communities and hospitals that have positions available or are actively recruiting graduates.
Walker earned her Master of Public Administration from Troy University and her Bachelor of Science in public affairs from Columbia College. She has many years of experience in business and administration, and has served Mercer since 2008.
About the Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)
Mercer University's School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School's primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon; Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah; and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master's degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences.
