Julie Walker received her BSN from Texas Woman’s University Houston Health Science Center in 2001 and her MSN with a Family Nurse Practitioner focus from UTMB Galveston in 2003.  She received her PhD in nursing from the Cizik School of Nursing, UT Health Science Center, Houston in 2017.   She has wide experience as a nurse practitioner including primary and urgent care.  However, her focus over most of her career has been the care of oncology patients and most recently the care of patients with suspected transfusion related reactions.  Her research interests include understanding how the meaning of a serious illness relates to symptom burden and quality of life and gaining a better understanding of symptom burden, including the role of inflammation in patients with serious illnesses.