When she attended Rutgers University as an undergraduate, Catherine Walker intended to pursue an English major, with a minor in psychology. By her junior year, however, she decided to upgrade psychology to a major as well.

“I was interested in journalism as a potential career path with my English major. The internet was just becoming very popular and all newsprint was online and much of it for free, so it seemed like a questionable path towards financial stability, however,” said Walker, associate professor of psychology.

“Being a clinician spoke to me because the reason I gravitate towards understanding the motivations of people. I am very happy with the choices I made. I found I was too concrete to pick out all of the potential symbolic meanings typically involved in interpreting English literature, but that is actually an excellent fit with being a cognitive behavioral therapist.”

After working for two years as a research assistant at Rutgers Eating Disorder Clinic, Walker started her Ph.D. program at the University at Albany.

Walker’s research and clinical work is centered on treating eating disorders, weight and body image dissatisfaction. She is the co-leader of the Body Project on campus, an evidence-based program that improves body image and prevents eating disorders by combatting unhealthy appearance ideals.

She was recently inducted as a member of the Eating Disorder Research Society, an honor that requires nomination by a current member and demonstrated leadership as a first author in the field.

Walker grew up in Central N.J. and now lives in Albany, where she and her family, including four-year-old son, Oscar, love the walkability of the neighborhood, including its proximity to Washington Park.

She has always loved arts, crafts, baking, cooking, singing and playing the cello. Since moving to the Capital Region and meeting her husband, she has become more outdoorsy.

“Now I hike and ski, too, and exercise regularly,” she said. “Sadly, that means less time to do other things I enjoy doing, but my colleagues in the department and on the FRB (Faculty Review Board) have enjoyed my baking from time to time, when our hectic trimesters allow for it. With Oscar, we are now hiking and skiing, playing with paper airplanes and trains, cooking and reading a ton. He's a joy!”

Walker joined Union in 2015.

“When I first started at Union, I knew it was a special place,” she said. “When I looked lost, people went out of their way to help me. I think that sense that we all have each other’s backs and are a community is the thing I love the most about working here.

“Everybody is there really to make everybody else's days better and this is part of our shared goal of providing a stellar education and residential experience to a group of lovely, engaged, creative students.”

FIRST APP YOU LOOK AT IN THE MORNING:

I take my heart rate variability to see if I should take a rest day (it generally is great at telling me I will be getting sick later in that day, or that I'm overtrained)

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

I am listening to “Entitled” by Kate Manne and have a Joan Didion book next in my line-up (“Blue Nights”), but I also have a book group book that I need to read or listen to (“The Hounding” by Xenobe Purvis). Those are all my audiobooks. I'm reading one of Amazon Prime's free monthly reads on my kindle app that I'm enjoying quite a bit, “The Distant Daughter: The Secrets of Trelenna House Book 1” by Lorna Cook, which was surprisingly good for a free Kindle book. I just finished “Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy and I recommend that strongly and without reservation. It’s fiction and emotionally tough, so just be warned to read it when you’re in a good headspace. It’s also excellently narrated as an audiobook if you like to listen to your books, like I do.

WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING:

Nothing at the moment. I generally listen to podcasts or audiobooks when I'm doing things like driving, laundry, cooking, etc. I do occasionally watch some Sesame Street, Clifford, Daniel Tiger, and Peppa Pig, but mostly somewhat begrudgingly.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU RECEIVED:

I really liked this piece of wisdom from Anne Lamotte's Four Immutable Laws of Being Human:

1. “Whoever is present are the right people. This suggests that you should engage with the people you are with in the moment, rather than wishing for others to be there.
2. Whenever it begins is the right time. This law teaches that there is no perfect moment to begin a task. You can start now, wherever you are.
3. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. This is a call to accept reality and let go of wishing things had gone differently.
4. When it's over, it's over. This is a reminder to embrace closure and not hold on to the past. As I'm definitely more toward the Type A side of the spectrum, I constantly need to remind myself to let go and go with the flow more.

ONE SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD:

Oh, so many! I would love to be able to do contractor/house construction work. It's a bucket list thing of mine to work with Habitat for Humanity and do some building and redecorating work so that I can learn how to do it myself rather than needing to hire people even for what are probably pretty basic things.

THREE DINNER PARTY GUESTS (living or deceased):

Hmm, I think I would like to have dinner with Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Dalai Lama and Obama (I would happily meet with Michelle Obama or Barack Obama!). I think they would have so much wisdom and just being in their presence would leave me awestruck. But it certainly feels bad to leave out meaningful historical figures (e.g., Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, etc.) and I'm sure if you asked me on a different day, I would have a different list.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOU:

I just finished climbing the Northeast 111 this summer with my husband. Those are all the peaks in the Northeast U.S. above 4,000 feet elevation gain. That includes the ADK 46, a few in the Catskill 3500 list (I have also finished those), the NH 48, a few in VT, and 14 in ME (I believe). I hiked Katadhin and Hamlin peak when I was 13 weeks pregnant with my son. And thankfully my morning sickness was just starting to get better that week.

FAVORITE UNION MEMORY/EXPERIENCE:

I really enjoyed being on the FRB last year and getting to know some of my amazing colleagues who were on it with me, as well as learning about all the amazing things that our other colleagues were doing. And I love seeing my research students knock it out of the park on Steinmetz Day each year, and when they present at international and regional research conferences. There's nothing like seeing their hard work come to fruition in that way.

ONE THING YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT:

Chocolate. Definitely chocolate. But with evidence growing that basically all chocolate is high in heavy metals, I suppose I will need to change my answer to carob. Somehow, I will survive this transition, but wish me luck! I wish those of you chocolate lovers out there the same luck and grit and strength it will take to transition.

WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE:

The Dalai Lama. I saw him speak when I was an undergraduate at Rutgers University. The football stadium was filled. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his philosophy and Buddhist philosophy in general. He has dedicated his life to improving the welfare of others and the planet with a firm stance in nonviolence.