Kathryn Walker began working in the hospital system in 2003, and left the inpatient sector in 2018 to open Revitalist — one of the first female lead outpatient wellness clinics in Tennessee.
“It has been a really amazing adventure so far,” said Walker, who serves as Revitalist’s CEO. “Being a female in this space is definitely unique, and I am excited to hopefully help inspire other women to take the same steps in their career.”
Walker said the best part of her position has been opening additional clinics and, in turn, providing greater access to health care.
“Life is hard right now, and Revitalist is taking a forward step to address a serious issue,” she said. “We want to be the standard of care across the board leading with experts that don’t forget the person. We want to bring back community, to bring back smiles, and understanding because we feel that we have lost that in many aspects of medicine.”
Originally from the Tri-Cities, Walker moved to Knoxville in 2014. She earned a nursing degree from East Tennessee State University in 2005, and a nurse anesthetist degree from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte in 2013.
Currently, she is working on an additional advanced degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Because advanced degrees in anesthesia, psychiatry, family medicine and research are the norm for Revitalist’s staff, Walker said that the clinic is “able to bring evidence-based medicine to the front lines and support the person as a whole with their physical and mental health.” “This clinic is unique in the fact that it was made to help increase access to care as well as to help take the burden off of many of our medical and mental health colleagues,” she added. Offering a variety of services, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, ketamine and vitamin infusions, spravato and therapy.
Revitalist currently has locations in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City and Louisville, Ky., and plans to open clinics in Raleigh, N.C., Bethesda, Md., and Novi, Mich.
The company also has announced it will be going public on the Canadian Stock Exchange on Aug. 24 as Revitalist Lifestyle and Wellness with the ticker symbol CALM, and will open over 150 additional locations across the country by 2025. “Helping to create Revitalist in 2018 and getting it validated as a public company in a little over three years would have to be one of my largest accomplishments,” noted Walker. “We have such a great team of individuals that want to make a difference, and we have, and we will continue to have a larger footprint as we expand.
Revitalist could not have made such great accomplishments with each and every person involved in this mission.”
