Jean Fisher Brinkley is NCMB’s Communications Director, a role that involves developing and overseeing production of communications materials and strategies needed to enhance public and professional awareness and understanding of the Board and its mission. She joined NCMB in 2008, after an 11-year career in newspaper journalism, most of it dedicated to reporting on medicine, health policy and the business aspects of health care.

Brinkley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and two daughters.

You can reach Jean at podcast@ncmedboard.org

Dr. Walker is a contracted family physician with New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington. Prior to that, she spent more than 14 years teaching medical students and performing various administrative roles at the Family Medicine Residency Program at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, ultimately serving as Program Director of the Osteopathic Family Medicine Residency. Dr. Walker was appointed in 2013 to the North Carolina Medical Board and served through October 2019. She led the Board as President in 2018-2019. Dr. Walker remains involved in NCMB’s work reviewing quality of care cases in the Board’ Office of the Medical Director as a contracted physician.  

Dr. Walker is a trustee of the American Osteopathic Association, the leading national group representing osteopathic medicine, and has served as a trustee of Campbell University.  She was president of the North Carolina Osteopathic Medical Association from June 1990 until September 1999. Dr. Walker retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Colonel in 2006, serving tours in both Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Khandelwal is a Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine with the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine. She is Boarded in both Geriatrics and Hospice and Palliative Medicine, serving in Harnett County within the Cape Fear Valley Hospital System. Previously, Dr. Khandelwal was a practicing palliative care and hospice physician and the VP of Education and Outreach at Transitions Life Care in Raleigh.