Dr. John Beaumont Walden was born in Charleston in 1943 and is a third generation family physician from rural Lincoln County. He attended the University of Virginia and graduated from the West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1970.
Walden studied clinical tropical medicine at Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in the Republic of Panama, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C., and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Liverpool, England. He returned to West Virginia as director of the Family Practice Clinic in West Hamlin, and in 1978 he became clinic professor in community medicine at the Marshall University School of Medicine. He later became the chief of division of family practice, director of the family medicine residency program and now professor and chairman of the Department of Family and Community Health.
In the mid-1980s, Walden developed the nation's first international health track in family medicine, which has served as a model for programs nationwide. He has traveled extensively throughout Central and South America, particularly in the Republic of Ecuador, where he worked on health care projects involving highland and lowland Indian populations. He was one of the first physicians to travel to Haiti to provide assistance after the January 2010 earthquake.
He serves on the board of directors of the Yeager Scholar Program at Marshall University, advisory board of the Community Trust Bancorp, Inc., and board of advisors for the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners.
