Laine Young-Walker, MD
University of Missouri - Columbia School of Medicine
As a physician leader of color in academic medicine — a field where representation still lags far behind the populations it serves — Laine Young-Walker, MD, chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Missouri - Columbia School of Medicine (MU SOM), has had an outsized impact on expanding opportunities at the school for historically underrepresented populations. She’s done this while making significant contributions to the mental health of children and adolescents in communities across Missouri with her varied initiatives addressing early childhood intervention, access to child and perinatal psychiatry, trauma-informed care, and support for children in the foster care system.
As principal investigator, responsible for more than $25 million in federal and state grants, Dr. Young-Walker has translated her vision for improved access and care for youth mental health into evidence-based action targeting rural families, children in foster care, youth in the juvenile justice system, and mothers navigating perinatal mental health challenges. Taking a multilayered approach to child and adolescent mental health problems has led Dr. Young-Walker to launch the Center for Child Well-Being. The center is home to 10 key interventional programs that support parents, professionals, and community organizations in fostering the mental health and well-being of children. Some of the programs include: the Child Trauma Initiative, which provides evidence-based trauma therapies to children in Missouri and trains the workforce on how to provide them; the Missouri Child Psychiatry Access Project, which supports primary care physicians in Missouri by helping them care for children with mild-to-moderate mental illness; and the Bridge Program, which integrates psychiatric services into schools to eliminate transportation and access barriers. She has also increased mental health support for pregnant and postpartum women through the Maternal Health Access Project.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Young-Walker served as associate dean for student affairs from 2016 to 2024. In that capacity, she led admissions reforms that fundamentally changed how the school recruits students from underrepresented backgrounds. She was appointed to the role at a critical time when MU SOM faced challenges in recruiting students from various backgrounds and had been cited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education for failing to achieve representation reflective of the state’s population. In short order, her efforts led to steady and meaningful gains, which led to the school matriculating its most academically accomplished class in 2022.
Dr. Young-Walker’s honors and professional affiliations include lifetime membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha, fellowship in the American College of Psychiatrists, and membership in the National Medical Association. She received an Image Award for Administrator of the Year from the MU chapter of the NAACP in 2019 and the NAACP Trailblazer Award in 2011. She is the first Black female department chair ever at MU SOM.
Dr. Young-Walker earned her MD at MU SOM in 1997 and completed residency and fellowship training in psychiatry there in 2002. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry.