Walker was born in Ohio and grew up there, graduating from
Adena High School in 1958. Walker has a B.A. in chemistry from
College of Wooster (1962). In 1966 she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from
Brown University. From 1967 until 1970 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the
University of California, Los Angeles, and an assistant professor at
Ithaca College. She then moved to
San Francisco State University, where she was promoted to professor in 1976. Subsequently, she moved to the
University of Arizona, where she was named regents professor in 2001, and then she retired in 2013. During her course of her career, Walker worked at variety of educational institutions, where she was responsible for conducting and teaching chemistry classes. She made a significant contribution to the development of the inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry research programs at the University of Arizona though her work there. Further, she was responsible for supervising postdoctoral research as well as graduate students, there by contributing to the development of the next generation of scientist working field. == Research ==