Contributor

Robert J. Walker

President of the Population Institute

Robert Walker is the President of the Population Institute, where he directs the organization's advocacy and public education activities, including its work on issues related to health, economic development, sustainability and the environment. He is the author of a recent report, titled “Demographic Vulnerability: Where Population Growth Poses the Greatest Challenges.” Prior to joining the Population Institute in February 2009, Mr. Walker was President of the Population Resource Center. He formerly was the Executive Director of the Common Cause Education Fund, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to promote open, honest and accountable government. He also served for three years as President of Handgun Control, Inc. and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, and four years as legislative director at Handgun Control, where he led the lobbying campaigns that led to the successful passage of the Brady Law and the federal assault weapons ban. Prior to his work for Handgun Control, Mr. Walker worked for a total of 14 years on Capitol Hill, including five years as a legislative aide to Rep. John B. Anderson and six years as Legislative Director to Rep. Mo Udall, the Chairman of the House Interior Committee. He also served for two years as Legislative Counsel for the American Association of Retired Persons. Mr. Walker has appeared on dozens of national news shows, including appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, PBS, and NPR. He has written dozens of opinion pieces for major newspapers, including the Financial Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Sun-Times, Newsday, the Denver Post, the Washington Post, the Baltimore-Sun, and the Boston Globe. He blogs frequently for the Huffington Post. Mr. Walker received his B.A. in Economics from Rockford College and his J.D. from the University of Illinois School of Law. He attended the University of Sydney in Australia under a Rotary graduate fellowship.