Before you dive deeper into the episodes of the Boss Leap Podcast, why not meet your hosts first? Dr. Sylvia Morris introduces her co-host Dr. Angela Walker, who revisits the valuable lessons of her career journey and highlights the importance of being intentional. Dr. Angela shares what it is like to grow up in Washington D.C., becoming a class president, and building her career as an OB-GYN. She also discusses her self-care routine, how she empowers women to make informed health choices, and why intentionality is a key element in living a fulfilled life.
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Being Intentional: Welcome To Boss Leap Part 1
Introduction Dr. Angela CB Walker
Welcome to the show. I’m Dr. Sylvia Morris, and I’m with my cohost.
I am Dr. Angela Walker.
We are Boss Leap. I’m so excited. We are going to have an in-depth, behind-the-scenes conversation with Dr. Angela Walker. We’re going to find out lots of tea, shall I say, about her life and how we came to do Boss Leap. Without further ado, I am going to introduce my cohost, my friend, and my co-author, Dr. Angela Walker. How are you doing?
I am good. I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to be doing this with you. Hopefully, you’ll find that there’s some tea. It’s pretty milky here. I don’t know if there’s much tea.
Birth And Hometown
There’s always tea. Always learning. Let’s start way back, as I say in the song. We’re going to go way back. Tell me about where you were born and where did you grow up.
I was born in Washington, DC.
Did I not know that?
You probably didn’t because I didn’t spend any time there. I was born there and my dad was in the military.
Air Force?
He was in the Air Force. We were in Japan when I was a baby. We came back to the States. I’m probably aged 3 to 7 in Northern California. We settled in Dallas, Texas, aged seven, and pretty much stayed there through high school.
Was your mom a Texan? How did your parents end up being in Dallas?
My mother has not embraced Texas until probably the last 10 or 15 years. She always talked about the South, the South. She grew up in South Carolina. My mom grew up in Newberry, South Carolina. My dad and I grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania. They’re both East coasters. Texas just happened to be. My dad, I think, wanted to be a career military man. Back in the mid-‘70s, they downsized. He was in the Air Force Reserve and at a base in Dallas. That’s how we got there.
He had a sister who lived there. That was, I guess, one of the places that was definitely different than California in terms of affordability at that time. I think that was a part of how they ended up in Texas. I think my dad was very happy to be there. My mom, on the other hand, “Eww.” It was a big change for her.
Childhood Dream
Absolutely, because either you’re a Texan or not. It’s interesting to hear how you all ended up there. I wondered about that. What did you want to be when you grew up?
We have similar stories. I’ll let you share yours, but from the time that I remember wanting to do anything or when someone asks, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It was a doctor. The only thing that I can recollect is possibly in kindergarten, I went to a little Montessori school, I could see my teacher and probably talking about careers and the doctor sounded fascinating. I’ve always liked science. I actually never really talked about this. I actually thought about being a veterinarian because I loved animals.
Cash and carry. People pay for their dogs, cats, birds, and fish.
I didn’t know that then. Actually, when we were teenagers, it was definitely not a career that you, “made money” from, at least those people that I knew. At any rate, medicine stuck. That was, I didn’t really have anyone growing up in my formative years that I knew was in medicine. My dad was 1 of 10 siblings. I had a lot of aunts who were nurses, but I didn’t grow up around them. I really didn’t have any direct contact, but I did know that it was possible. After I got out of college, I became closer to my two cousins, who were physicians by then.
Memorable Mentors
Was there a teacher you mentioned you were at Mama’s celery school, a teacher in high school, or even in college who really had a strong influence on you or your thoughts of going into medicine? Do you have a favorite teacher?
It’s sad to say I don’t remember anyone in particular who had a direct impact on my career in medicine. I will say I remember in probably about 5th or 6th grade. I think the reason why I remember this teacher is she was very kind. Not that I didn’t have good teachers because I feel like I had really good teachers growing up, but Joy Smith was her name. She was my reading teacher and she was a Black female. I had a Black female coach at that time. Other than that, there weren’t any other Black educators until I got to high school. I wish I could tell you why she had such a great impact. I think it’s just because she was so kind and encouraging.
Representation matters, too.
Absolutely. I did have a love of reading at that time. That’s probably why that made an impact on me. In college, one of the advisors, the science advisors, the class that I remember was horticulture, which you’d think I know something about. I’m growing plants, but my husband’s actually the green thumb. I just remember him being somebody who believed in me. At Texas A&M, there was a Mexican American pre-med association. It was called MAPA, but that was the only minority association in science there.
Learn to gain some independence and build self-confidence. If you cannot do something yourself, no one else is doing it for you. Share on XWhat year were you at Texas A&M?
1986 to 1990.
There was only MAPA? There was no black pre-health organization?
Yeah. He wanted to create something that would be inclusive, but they wanted to keep the MAPA and asked me to lead it. We made it the minority association of pre-health Aggies. It was fun. It was part of the creation of it. Not like an organization didn’t exist first because I think they had a really good base, but it allowed us to include everyone. I wish that I could remember his name and maybe this would make me go and investigate, but that he just believed that I could do this. This is what I want. I think you could help us to get there. We did. It was a great conversation.
Class Presidency
The rest is history. I didn’t know that. I guess I’m surprised that there wasn’t also a black-free health organization. We’ll get to my story at Berkeley because we had a pretty robust one. I also remember from our many conversations over coffee and wine and other things, that in high school, you were student body president. Is that correct?
I was class president.
The class president is still a big class. Tell us about that. I think also how that prepared you. In med school, you were SNMA chapter president, if I remember correctly. Give us a little background on that.
My high school career was interesting because, as I mentioned, I had gone to smaller schools in Montessori school and then it was a Tyler Street Christian Academy in Dallas. It was a small private school until the eighth grade. My mother taught at the public high school. It was a magnet school back then. It was a large school that bussed kids from all over Dallas. I begged and begged to go. I got there and I went from a class of 40 students to a class of 900. You’re right.
That’d be too much for me.
It was too much for me, but I had gotten my way and I got there. I would sit in her classroom until the bell rang because I would ride to school with her. She was a bus driver. I’d ride to school with her and sit in the classroom. I obviously met some people in my classes, but it was very intimidating. As you well know, my very best friend, Bridget, had gone to public school with a lot of the kids.
We hadn’t met through our mothers. Long story short, through her, I was introduced to a lot of people. I say that because she really did help me integrate into that large system. I don’t know, I think, some of the moxie comes from my parents just always saying, “You can do this, you can do that.” Just believed in myself, but I certainly didn’t come in as a student leader in my freshman year. I worked up to that once, and I was a little bit more comfortable with that.
I am hearing that you were making boss leaps way back in high school because you went from a class of 40. We’re just going to go ahead and repeat this to leading a class of 900. Let’s go back to Angela of the late ‘80s. Yes, we look great. It was the late ‘80s. You mentioned the word moxie, and I think that that is so appropriate. How did you go from sitting in the back of the class or sitting, waiting for class to begin to leading to deciding, “I think I can be class president.” How did that evolve?
I wish I could just bottle it all up and be able to tell someone again. I always wanted to serve. I’ve always been in servant roles and leadership roles, and I guess I felt like I was good at them. I’ve always been a people person.
You are.
I’ve just been wired to be in the midst of whatever’s going on versus sitting on the sidelines. It just became a goal that looked like it was attainable. I’m an only child.
Each two.
Yes. I think you’ve gained some independence and, hopefully, for a lot, some self-confidence because if you don’t do it yourself, then no one else is doing it for you. That was helpful. I tell a lot of the moms that we haven’t talked about that, but OB-GYN. I have moms who worry about having an only child. I said, “If it gives you nothing, I think it gives you independence.” I believe you can do anything depending on who you have behind you, which were my parents.
I don’t know how else to answer it other than that. It was just innate. Not everybody is born to lead, right? There are a lot of people that are very good working below the scenes or how are you term that you’re the wordsmith? Behind the curtain, and they’re very happy in that role, and I just tend to be more of the person in front of the curtain.
Health Coaching
It’s really important for us to know where our strengths are as well, but I think the basis of the groundwork is service, and certainly, I’ve seen that throughout our friendships, so definitely. That’s a perfect segue because tell me about the work that you do. I know this will be an ongoing conversation throughout our show, just going behind the curtain on how we have moved from being physicians to doing other things. At this point in your career, just tell me where you are or what you’d like to share about how you’re here.
Career-wise, I am an OBGYN and delivered babies for 25 years. Years ago, I made a career pivot, which we talked about, or a leap to a different early pad and made a move towards working outside the office and outside of the hospital. Have done more career in some utilization management, which is charting, reviews, and things of that nature. I’ve also been interested in women’s health and the women’s health arena, and I have felt for a long time that I wanted to speak to a larger audience. When we’re in the office and you’re tied to 10, 15, 20 minutes, typically max, of talking to a woman about all things, mental health, physical health, emotional health, you run out of time.
There are some things to learn in medicine that are happenstance. You may not be learning about it to teach to your patients, but you end up learning it yourself and passing it along to them. Share on XI’ve always felt like medicine should be more preventative than treatment, if at all possible. My passion, which hopefully is aligned with my purpose, is to create a world in which women are empowered to make moves and choices that help to prevent a lot of the things in our paths that we know can really throw us off in terms of our overall health. I’ve moved in that pathway with speaking and health coaching. My business is Dr. Walker and the program is called Health Style. That’s been a lot of fun in the making.
What’s the name of the website for Health Style?
People can contact you on your website. Awesome. It’s open for physicians, professionals, and any woman.
Any woman, yes. My target audience is someone like us because that’s who I can speak to the best: professional women who are busy and oftentimes have not made themselves the priority in terms of their health and wellness. We’re at a point in life where that becomes really critical. If you don’t make changes now, then you are really changing the trajectory of your life.
Self-Care Routine
Amen. That’s a wonderful segue. Talk to me about your self-care routine.
It is a work in progress.
As we all are.
I think you brought up the word of being intentional and I have tried to be very intentional. I start in the morning with prayer. It is sometimes long, sometimes short, but I do. That has always been something that I’ve done, prayer. Meditation, you were the first person in my life to mention mindset to me. I was like, “What are you talking about mindset, mindfulness? Are you practicing mindfulness?”
I’m thinking, “What are you talking about?” There are things that we learn in medicine that sometimes are happenstance. It may not be part of your curriculum that you’re learning to teach to your patients, but you end up learning it yourself and you pass it along to your patients, and being mindful is one of those things. Doing some yoga and meditation has been helpful. Some of the other things that I love in terms of self-care is my love of the ocean. Whenever I can get to the water, unfortunately, we’re landlocked. We’re not landlocked here, but we’re far.
We’re in the Atlanta area. I’m not as close to the ocean as I’d like to be. Getting on the lake has been helpful. It’s not the same, but just being by the water changes my entire being, my spirit, and things that were bothering me before just fall away. I try to do that as much as possible. Family, being intentional about spending time with family. I’ve got my two girls. Even though that’s moving away from maybe self-care, I think being intentional about the time I spend with them is helpful to me.
People we love. Having people we love and being intentional about the time and understanding that if we don’t necessarily plan for it, then time slips away.
Walking, I didn’t mention walking. It used to be running. It’s been more walking lately. As a runner, you hurt one thing and then and trying to do actually another part of self-care because I did have some aches is doing some physical therapy but put it off because of work. When do I have time? We tell our patients that they have to make time. I had to sit back and listen to some of the advice that I give to patients, but walking is another form of self-care for me, such as exercise.
Don’t you have a walking partner or who walks you, perhaps?
I would not call him a partner. He’s more of a walking impediment. You’re talking about Sebastian, our bulldog.
I love Sebastian.
I love Sebastian. It depends on the day because there are days when he does want to walk. Unfortunately, if we get too far out on his walk, he sounds like he’s going to have a heat stroke. He can only go so far. In terms of actually having a meaningful walk that fulfills my exercise requirement, I typically take him or bring him back home, and he can sit and watch television while I take my meaningful walk.
I think Sebastian would be upset with that answer, but okay, we’ll let you have that.
He’ll tell you, “She’s telling the truth.”
Most Important People
Tell me about some of the important people in your life.
Women must be reminded to take care of themselves first before taking care of others. Share on XI was married when I was 23, about a year and a half out of college. I married my high school sweetheart, Carl.
How does one stay married for many years? That’s probably for a separate episode. We’ll just throw that out.
It’s hard work. I’ll put it like that. It’s obviously commitment, hard work, and two people who love each other and want to continue to work at it. I’ll leave that one for another segment. The other two people that I immediately think of are my girls. Alexis and Chloe, I’ve got two grown children. I can’t believe this.
I can’t, either. I remember when they were born.
They were eggs. They’re two amazing, talented, thoughtful, the loves of my life.
They’re pretty cool human beings. It’s okay. We can cry at our first episode.
These amazing kids that I love with my whole heart. I have an elderly mother.
You did not just call your mom elderly on this episode. Miss B, I didn’t have anything to do with that. She didn’t mean it.
She is thriving. She is a firecracker. I’m not going to do that to her. She’s full of life, loves life, and wants to do all that she can to make the rest of her life meaningful, which is why I get a lot of my definitely my moxie for sure, as well as my health choices from her. She’s always been that way. She’s always had herbs and healthful eating and she’ll eat a chili dog from Sonic, but she’s also the salads and the vegetables and the greens and has always been that person. I think that’s where I get a lot of my healthful behavior from and what I’ve encouraged my kids as well.
Three Valuable Advice
That brings us to two more questions. First off, what advice do you give your patients that you wish you could further implement in your life? There’s stuff that we say to patients all the time and I intend to do it, but I don’t always do it. Is there something that you’d like to share with us?
Probably a couple of things. Number one in terms of that intentionality, we keep bringing that up, but writing things down. If there are things that you want to eat, if there is an exercise regimen that you want to follow, write it down and plan for it because if you say I’m going to exercise, I’m going to start exercising next week, but you haven’t put it on that Wednesday, Friday, Sunday schedule in your day planner, which I use.
With the different color pens and the highlighters, I love that.
If you haven’t put it on your calendar, Sunday rolls around, and you haven’t done it on the other days. Life is just busy. It is what it is. Being intentional about what you want to do. Number two is making sure other people in your life know what you’re doing.
Tell me more about that.
Everybody has their desires of what they want to do. My husband has plans and things that he wants to do. If I haven’t, what I have found in our relationship, if I haven’t said this, “I’m taping Boss Leap today.” He already has other things that he wants to do. Maybe it was things we wanted to do together. He was disappointed because he didn’t know what I wanted to do. Also, if I am up late the night before, I’ve said, “This is what I’m doing wrong.” “Didn’t you say you were going to be doing such and such?” It becomes somebody that’s holding you accountable as well. More importantly, you are announcing to people that this is time that I am taking for myself and I want you to respect the things that I’m doing for myself. It’s setting boundaries.
We know that’s important.
I guess the third thing along those lines is reminding, because I take care of women, that you must take care of yourself first. That’s such an antithesis of what we learn in so many parts in medicine. If you grew up in the church, if you grew up just as women in the United States.
We take care of all the other people. We forget to put our oxygen mask on first and then put on an oxygen mask for the other person.
Trying to encourage women to do that in terms of their lives makes a difference in their health. Doing the things for you first, and then you can help the others in your life. Oftentimes, particularly as a mother of daughters, what you learn is they see what you do. If you are someone who was not exercising, but all of a sudden you’re taking the time to do your walks and do your exercise, they see what you do. If you are somebody who’s always stopping at the fast food restaurant but is now starting to do some meal planning and meal preps and is prioritizing healthy eating, they see what you do. More importantly, we have to do it for ourselves first. It does affect the other people in our lives. Making sure that we take the time to do those things for ourselves.
Message To Younger Self
Finally, if you could talk to a younger version of yourself, let’s say high school senior Angela, what would you say?
Slow down and take the time to learn about yourself. Share on XSlow down, take the time to learn about yourself. I think that’s so hard. Something that I really try to drive home with my girls is learn about the things that you love. At eighteen, you might not know everything that really sets a fire under you and you don’t really know yourself. Now 55, we’re always a work in progress. We’re always evolving. Hopefully, if we are growing, we will evolve and make good changes in our lives. I think knowing that at eighteen, I didn’t know that.
I know that I want to be a doctor and these are the steps that I have to take to become a doctor, but to give yourself grace, learn to listen to what feels right inside. When you are hearing things or accepting things that don’t feel right, it’s okay to challenge that because, at the end of the day, you have to be true to yourself. If you make exceptions or you are following someone else’s path, at the end of the day, you will at some point come to realize that that is not serving you well. Be patient with life, enjoy every day, and don’t delay. We say delay gratification.
In terms of financial things, yeah, it’s okay to delay that, but don’t delay enjoying the small things in life. That makes sense because you should be able to find joy in every day. Even though we want to become physicians and we have to work, work, work hard, hard, hard, you should still find something to enjoy every step along the way. It’s not like once you get to a certain step in life that all of a sudden, you push the happy button and suddenly you’re happy. No, we know that that’s not the way it works.
Episode Wrap-up
It does not. This has been an awesome conversation, Angela, and such a wonderful way for our listeners to get to know you as we embark upon the show. I want to thank you for being authentic. The favorite word that you said for me was grace, to remember to have grace, be intentional, and have grace for yourself. Thank you very much.
You are so awesome, Sylvia. I love talking to you. Obviously, that’s why we’re doing this together. I cannot wait for our readers to hear more about you in the upcoming episode. Thank you. I appreciate you listening to me and asking the questions that hopefully our readers and our listeners will find that give them some clarity in terms of who they’re dealing with here.
Angela, may you be well?
May you be well, Sylvia.
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