For Ron Walker, the O’Neill School offered not just a transformative education—it turned a proud alma mater into a family tradition of leadership and public service.
A 1996 graduate of the Master of Public Affairs program, Walker has built a successful career that spans the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.
Almost 30 years later, his daughter Lucia carried that legacy forward, graduating from O’Neill in 2025 with a degree in arts management and receiving the prestigious Kate Hevner Mueller Senior Award for her leadership and contributions to the IU community.
“I look at my time at O’Neill, those two years, as two of the best years of my life and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Walker first learned about O’Neill from a former advisor who was also an alum. He entered the program interested in environmental policy but soon discovered a different passion, public finance, which opened his eyes to the program’s cross-sector versatility.
“I began to really like the public financial side of O’Neill because I thought I could take those principles and apply them across a number of different sectors or programs in government.”
That insight shaped the rest of his professional path. After graduation, Walker started his career in state government with the Indiana Department of Education. He later transitioned to local government, taking on leadership roles in Monroe County and the City of Bloomington.
“Our career paths never go the way we think they may go. I left O’Neill hoping to enter the field of city management, and I took a job in economic development, and I loved it because you touch all aspects of the community, you meet a lot of people, you learn a great deal.”
During his time in local government, he played a key role in economic development initiatives that helped shape Bloomington’s downtown landscape and public-private partnerships.
Walker eventually moved into nonprofit work focused on urban revitalization and later joined the private sector. Today, he serves as president of CFC Properties, a Cook Group company that invests in historic preservation and community development in Bloomington.
“Throughout my career, my degree from O’Neill—and more importantly, what I learned at O’Neill—helped me be successful in government, the nonprofit sector, and now in the private sector.”
He credits O’Neill with teaching him not only technical skills, but how to approach complex problems with strategy and clarity.
“O’Neill educated me on how to take large programs, break them down into (their contributing) factors and outcomes, and then work on how to implement those strategies.”
That approach has stayed with him and continues to shape how he leads today. It’s also why he encourages prospective students to consider O’Neill if they’re looking for both practical skills and a broader understanding of the world around them.
“O’Neill welcomes you in and teaches you hard skills, but you also learn a great deal about our world, on the macro level and the micro level.”
That deep respect for the O’Neill experience made it especially meaningful when his daughter chose to follow the same path.
“It’s very moving to me to see Lucia graduate from the O’Neill School because I know O’Neill has had such a profound impact on me. It meant a lot to me that she chose to go here.”
Lucia also embraced the O’Neill experience through studying abroad in Rome, interning with arts organizations, and serving as student coordinator for the arts administration practicum. Through each of these roles, she carried forward a commitment to public service while creating a path uniquely her own.
As a public servant, nonprofit leader, private-sector executive, and proud O’Neill parent, Ron Walker represents the full spectrum of what an O’Neill education can prepare students to achieve and the kind of legacy it can create.
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