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Departments under Administration

Bernice L. Walker, Director of Small Business Development

 
Ms. Walker has served as the Director of Small Business Development since July 2000.  She was in private practice with a law firm for approximately six years before joining the County team.  Ms. Walker was employed by a financial institution while still in college and continued that employment while earning her law degree.  Her law practice included administrative, business, contract, and municipal law, and she is a former adjunct professor at her law school. 

Ms. Walker is a graduate of Belmont High School (Dayton, Ohio), she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics from The College of Wooster (Ohio), and a Juris Doctor from the Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law (Highland Heights).  She is a licensed attorney, admitted to practice in all Ohio Courts, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court. 

Ms. Walker's professional memberships include the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), the American, National, Ohio State, and Cincinnati Bar Associations, and the Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati (President, 1999 – 2001).  She is the past President (2005-2007) of the Cincinnati Chapter of NFBPA, and a member of the National Bar Association Board of Governors.  She is also active in various civic organizations, and a proponent of cooperative efforts. 

Her office has successfully worked with the City of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Public Schools to form the Public Entities Small Business Collaborative that was recognized in 2004 by the National Association of Counties with an Achievement Award.  Now in its fifth year, the group has expanded to include the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments and the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority.