Khadija Walker

Khadija is the Director of Recycling, Cleanup and Pollution Prevention Audits at the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG). Khadija has held multiple positions for the past 21 years at the EPA OIG. Within her roles, her responsibilities have entailed leading or conducting performance audits of numerous national environmental program areas including drinking water, clean water, contracts, grants, superfund, and clean buses. She led these reviews to assess the susceptibility of fraud, waste, abuse, and the impact of these programs; to provide progress on the status of these programs to the Agency and the public; and to produce reports in response to Congressional requests. Some examples of her work include managing and serving as a court witness in the programmatic investigation of the Agency’s role in the Flint, Michigan Water contamination crisis in 2016; and led the audit of the PolyMet Mine water permit that was used as evidence in the Minnesota Supreme Court decision to remand the permit to protect the lands of the Fond Du Lac Lake Band of Chippewa. Over the years Khadija has been honored with several awards for her work. She received the EPA Gold Medal for completing valuable and impactful work on congressional earmarks. She received awards for excellence from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (2009, 2019); Chatham University Distinguished Alumnae Cornerstone Award for Environment (2020); EPA OIG Silver Medal for Superior Service (2022); EPA OIG Creativity and Innovation Award (2022); EPA OIG Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Award (2022, 2023); 20 Years of Federal Service (2023); and letters of recognition from several US EPA Inspectors General.