Maureen Walker

Maureen Walker is a licensed psychologist, educator, and writer whose work is devoted to helping people bridge cultural differences such as race, religion, gender, and other social status markers.

Born in Augusta, Georgia, during the period of legally mandated racial segregation, she attended segregated, underresourced public schools. In spite of the lack of resources, her love of learning was nurtured by women and men who considered teaching a sacred duty to spark the ambitions and cultivate the talents of their students. Upon graduation from high school, she entered Mercer University and graduated with degrees in vocal performance and English. Immediately after graduation, she began teaching in Georgia public schools where de jure segregation had ended but many of the norms of the Old South persisted. Although her formal role was teaching English literature to high school students, she was equally committed to helping young people of all races navigate the complexities of evolving cultural realities. While working, she returned to Mercer University to obtain a master’s degree in education and began a program of study in business administration.

After 8 years in public education, Maureen accepted a position as executive director of a women’s center. While serving in this capacity, she entered a doctoral program in counseling psychology, earning her PhD with a clinical concentration in psychotherapy from Georgia State University. In 1991, she started work as a staff psychologist in the MBA Counseling Service at Harvard Business School. During her career at Harvard, she served in various roles, retiring after 25 years as the Director of Student Support Services.

Concurrent with her work at Harvard, Maureen has maintained private clinical practice in psychotherapy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1993. At the International Center for Growth in Connection (formerly known as the Jean Baker Miller Institute), she provides training and supervision to students and practitioners of relational-cultural theory. In addition to coediting two books on relational-cultural psychotherapy, she has authored textbook chapters, journal articles, and numerous papers in the Wellesley College Stone Center Works in Progress Series.

She is supported in her life work by a spiritual, intellectual, and fun-filled partnership with her husband, Bill Larkin; her two big-hearted and talented children, Angela Shenk and Walker Sands; and her four beloved grandchildren.