J. Richard Walker, III, MD, MS, FACEP is a physician at Regional One Health and the Chief of Service for Emergency Medicine as well as Founder and Program Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Walker earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Tennessee Health Science Center, completed his emergency medicine residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham and his undersea/hyperbaric medicine fellowship at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He has a Master of Science degree in Molecular/Cell Biology from University of Memphis.

Dr. Walker founded and developed the training program for the first Emergency Medicine Residency in the Memphis area at the UT Health Science Center. He was the first to integrate the Emergency Medicine Residency into the Trauma Center and staff the center with board certified Emergency Medicine physicians around the clock. He specializes in medicine in extreme and austere environments and he has conducted research projects with: NASA, the US Air Force and the Naval Experimental Dive Unit. Dr. Walker remains an adjunct assistant professor of undersea/hyperbaric medicine at Duke University and his interests include: medicine in austere environments, disaster medicine, undersea/hyperbaric medicine and tactical emergency medicine.