I Am Wilshire: Jim Walton

by | Apr 26, 2024 | I Am Wilshire

Hometown: Dallas;
Present City: Dallas;
Education: UNT, Biology; UNT, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine; Michigan, MBA.
Profession: Physician (internist), health care executive;

Tell us about your family.
I’ve been married to Rhonda for 43 years. We raised four sons: Steven, married to Ashley with two children, Kennedy, 6, and Carter, 3; Daniel, married to Ami; Benjamin, married to Taylor; and Andrew.

How about your work or volunteer life?
I retired in 2023 and now consult for clients working to improve healthcare for Medicaid and the medically underserved. I volunteer on a federal advisory committee focused on Medicare and Medicaid reform. I’m a hospice volunteer for VNA Texas and a visiting professor in Healthcare Disparities and Strategic Management for UTD and Rutgers.

Favorite hobbies?
Gardening, hiking, scuba diving and reading.

What brought you to Wilshire and when?
We moved from Waxahachie in 2013 after our last son left for college. We found Wilshire because of its mature leadership and application of Christian theology around social justice and egalitarianism.

Where are you engaged at Wilshire?
Epiphany Class and the Missions Committee.

What’s surprised you most about Wilshire?
Wilshire’s maturity and openness to being an early adopter for how Christian institutions can recognize and respond to the urgent need for diversity, inclusion and equity in leadership, membership and practice in society.

What do you think God is up to in your life right now?
God is teaching me to slow down and recognize the power of developing new relationships with strangers — reducing the distance between myself and others with different backgrounds and lived experiences and better connecting with what God is up to in the world.

Tell us about your faith journey.
Raised as a Methodist, I was influenced by Young Life leaders and became a Christian in 1984. I struggled to express my faith as a husband, father and physician, but in the last decade I’ve experienced a renewal of faith, coming to a deeper understanding of God’s love for both me and the world.

Something interesting most people would not know about you?
In Waxahachie, I transitioned from private practice to making “house calls” for impoverished survivors of complex neurotrauma living without health insurance in Dallas. This gave me opportunities to participate on medical teams responding to the healthcare needs created by natural disasters and the long-term consequences of poverty and social injustice.

What adjectives best describe you?
Curious.

*If you are interested in being featured in an upcoming I Am Wilshire feature, contact Carolyn Murray (cmurray@wilshirebc.org)