Kari Walker

Kari Walker is the President & CEO of The Guidance Center. Mr. Walker has been instrumental in developing new business plans, cultivating public/private partnerships, and creating new service delivery networks to impact the lives of thousands of children and adults in southeast Michigan. Walker’s collaborative efforts have proven successful to the operations at The Guidance Center and have grown the agency’s budget from $8 million in 1996 to $39 million today.

In 2000, he fostered a partnership with Southwest Solutions to develop Bridgeway Services, inc., which operates an $16-million per year contract to serve delinquent youth at both Southwest Solutions and The Guidance Center.

Walker also served as Interim CEO for Behavioral Health Professionals, Inc., a $140,000,000 per year mental health and developmental disabilities benefit management operation. In 2007 he worked with the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency (DWCCMH) to implement key aspects of the Virtual Center of Excellence (VCE) to provide continuing education and workforce development to the 20,000 workers in the DWCCMH System.

Walker holds a Master of Social Work Administration degree from the University of Michigan (1982). He also has over three decades of experience as an administrator in mental health, health care, and social service agencies. Recently, he was awarded a scholarship by the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Michigan to attend the HBS Executive Education program: Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management.