Maurice Walker is the Program Manager for the Virginia-North Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation. The VA-NC Alliance is a National Science Foundation program focusing on increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning baccalaureate degrees in STEM, and matriculating to graduate school. The Alliance is comprised of 11 undergraduate institutions and 1 federal laboratory; University of Virginia serves as the lead institution. NSF also awarded the Alliance funding for a Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) program, which supports underrepresented students pursuing a doctoral degree. Maurice has longstanding ties to the local community. He is a Charlottesville native who graduated from UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, and earned a Master of Education from the Curry School of Education.