Beloved Agricultural Leader Reflects on Family, Students and a Legacy of Service

Dr. Lloyd Walker was a rising Ph.D. candidate and researcher at Texas A&M University – deep in poultry science, publishing widely and contributing to innovations that helped make poultry the nation’s leading meat – when a phone call changed everything. Alabama A&M University had seen his work and asked him to visit. In 1992, the young scientist with an undergraduate and master’s degree from Prairie View A&M and a new Ph.D. from Texas A&M made his way to The Hill.

Walker’s early research focused on solving a major challenge for the poultry industry: how to rapidly increase production without expanding expensive aging facilities. His team helped refine electrical stimulation techniques to accelerate tenderization, moving poultry more efficiently into the market. He describes himself simply as “on the team” that helped bring poultry to the top of U.S. meat consumption, though colleagues credit his contributions as foundational.

Not long after Walker arrived at AAMU, tragedy reshaped his path. His colleague and friend, Dr. Barat Singh – who had recently returned from a trip to Africa – fell ill with malaria and died shortly after. Walker remembers seeing him in the hallway that Friday evening, coughing and urging him to go home and rest. By Monday, Singh had passed.

Soon after, Walker walked past a group of students standing outside a classroom without an instructor. They stopped him and asked, “Dr. Walker, can’t you come and teach us?” He said yes. That moment, he often says, is how his life as a teacher truly began.

Walker went on to teach chemistry for years and later stepped into leadership roles including department chair, interim associate provost, and dean. His administrative portfolio grew to include the registrar’s office, admissions, University College, the State Black Archives, programs, and eventually the Office of Sponsored Programs. In 2014, he returned fully to the field he loved when he became dean of the College of Agricultural, Life and Natural Sciences and director of 1890 Research.

Through every role, family remained central. Walker, originally from Port Morant, in Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica, has been married to his wife, Faye, for 44 years. She retired from Huntsville City Schools after a long career of her own. Their son, Kibwe, an AAMU biology graduate, now works as a regional training manager in Arlington, Va. Their youngest daughter, Karlene Walker-Shirley, fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a pediatrician. “That’s the one I couldn’t convince to attend Alabama A&M,” said Walker. “I brought her here, put her in the lab, put my lab coat on her, gave her projects, she earned some state awards, but she was dead set on going to UAB ever since she was a kid.” Another daughter, Carol has also built a successful career of her own. Walker says he is looking forward to spending time with them and the rest of his family “We want to do that, spend a little bit more time with the present and future grandkids.”

As he prepares for retirement – his last day at work set for Dec. 19, 2025, with his official retirement beginning Jan. 1 – Walker says he will miss his students most. He is so proud of the many former students who have gone on to distinguished careers, including academic leaders he once coached and mentored. “The thing that really makes me tick is after you teach, you mentor, you guide students…and you see they go out and end up in these very high-profile positions. That really gets me,” he said. “It’s always the students for me.” He often reminds colleagues to “never, never, never lose sight of the fact that students are the center of what we do.”

Walker plans to stay connected to AAMU, offering to teach or speak when needed, and hopes to continue writing – including a more student-friendly food chemistry text and a book capturing the Jamaican sayings of his mother, Remella Nesbeth. He also plans to travel with his wife to places neither has yet explored together.

Looking back on more than three decades of service, Walker sums up his philosophy with the message he has carried throughout his career – one he hopes the University continues to hold close. “Students must remain at the center of all decisions. Real education means teaching them how to be both bright and smart…so they go out and use the knowledge that they have earned and learned.”