Fay Walker grew up in the 1950's in the quiet north Georgia mountain town of Canton. She attended Mars Hill College in 1960, to UNC-CH in 1962 and completed a Master's in Social Work (MSW), with a concentration in community organizing in 1967, all the while continuing an involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
After a time outside the South (1967-1970), she returned, taught at UNC-CH School of Public Health, and started the Social Work Degree Program at Mars Hill College. Fay organized and was the first Executive Director of the Association for Home Care--a statewide organization to encourage agencies and businesses providing health care at home. She eventually returned to her native Southern Appalachia in 1982 and developed health-care-at-home programs for the hospital in Brevard from 1982-1993. Fay retired from her professional career on her fiftieth birthday in order to devote herself full time to her heart work---racial justice and reconciliation.
Fay organized the Commission to Dismantle Racism for the Episcopal Diocese of Western NC and through anti-racism workshops began to spread the concept of "white privilege" throughout the region. This effort is still strong today.
Together with Rev. Fred Gordon, pastor of Bethel "A" Baptist Church, Brevard, NC, Fay founded Rise & Shine Freedom School in 1996 to "enrich children, empower parents and encourage community." Affiliated with the national child advocacy group, Children's Defense Fund, Rise & Shine engages some 80 volunteers in 1:1 tutoring and mentoring for students K-12 while providing a "container" in which children and adults work together to build the Beloved Community or racial justice and reconciliation.
Fay received the Nancy Susan Reynolds award in 1999 for her work in race relations. Fay says, “I intend to be an active anti-racist the rest of my life.”