Liz Walker is the founding director of The CAN WE TALK… Network, a nationwide collective of spiritually inspired, community-based, clinically supported programs addressing America’s epidemic of post-traumatic stress and grief through the healing power of sharing personal stories. 

Storytelling has always been Reverend Walker’s calling and most effective platform. As the first Black woman to anchor the Boston-area evening news, she found herself in an industry that defined the neighborhood of Roxbury largely by violence. When she became an ordained minister, called to lead Roxbury Presbyterian Church, she learned a different story, meeting scores of families marked not only by trauma but by courage--including the family of Cory Johnson, a young, murdered church member. In the wake of their worst nightmare, that family’s willingness to talk about their pain inspired Reverend Liz to create CAN WE TALK… weekly community gatherings where residents are encouraged to share traumatic experiences, increase their understanding of psychological trauma, and learn coping skills. CAN WE TALK… offers mental health support to many who otherwise might not receive it. Since it began in 2014, Can We Talk has been replicated in 18 different sites nationally. 

 A master’s graduate of Harvard Divinity School (’05), Liz Walker has long been actively involved in a healing ministry. In 1998, she helped found the Jane Doe Safety Fund, a multimillion-dollar anti-violence initiative in Massachusetts that continues to work on policy and supports domestic abuse shelters and safe houses around the commonwealth. In 2001, she began a 10-year humanitarian mission in South Sudan one of Africa’s most troubled countries, and helped build a girls’ school there. In 2015, the US State Department invited her to Belgium to help coach a culturally diverse group of young women in self-empowerment and building cross-cultural relations. 

In New England, Reverend Liz is still best known as one of the region’s most popular television news anchors, a position she held for 21 years. An icon in the Boston community, she has received numerous honorary academic degrees and professional recognition, including two Emmy awards representing the highest honor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 

Considered one of the nation’s most healing voices, Reverend Liz will launch her first book, No One Left Alone in April, based on a simple truth: the wounded heal best together. Reverend Liz’s life, like her book, has been described as "Inspiring, thoughtful, and beautiful"… "a tender reminder and spacious invitation…” to experience the grace and love in all of us.