"The more we can encourage people, once they’re fully qualified, to think about applying for positions, can only be good for our workforce, for patient care long term, and for our students," Dr Walker said this week.
"A more diverse workforce is just really good for the university," he added.
There had been a "massive wave" of increased enrolment at Otago University by students of Pacific Island heritage, but there was a shortage of Pacific university academic staff and hospital senior clinical staff.
"If we look at health sciences, and across the university, there are very few Pacific staff, especially in leadership positions.
"We’re producing a lot more Pacific graduates, but now it’s time to get some of them back so we can increase our capacity with teaching, research and working with the Pacific students."
The university was "100%" behind such moves, he said.
Dr Walker, who is of Tongan heritage, moved back to Dunedin with his family early last year after being initially appointed as associate dean Pacific at the Dunedin School of Medicine.
He said the leadership of Prof Faafetai Sopoaga had contributed to the rise in Pacific health science student numbers and had also been "a role model to myself and many young Pacific Islands health professionals".
Dr Walker has more recently been appointed associate dean Pacific for the university health sciences division.
Pacific student numbers in Otago health sciences are at historically high levels.
A record 37 Pacific health science students graduated last year.
This year, the university has welcomed more than 130 Pacific students to first year health sciences.
Dr Walker said his initial appointment had given him a pathway to return to his roots in Dunedin.
"We have to make it easy for people to return."
In 2006, he was the only Pacific student to graduate as a doctor from Otago Medical School.
This began a high-achieving career which led him to Australia and the United States, where he spent 12 years undertaking further training at Harvard, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, Irvine.
He leads a busy life, in his joint appointment at the university and at the Southern District Health Board as a consultant geriatrician.
He is a former president of the Otago University Medical School Students’ Association and the New Zealand Medical Students’ Association.
The "unique opportunities" arising from this experience had also led to his more recent involvement with the World Medical Association,
where he helped found the Junior Doctors Network and was its inaugural chairman in 2011.
Dr Walker remains a keen runner, and has run 13 major marathons, including the Berlin Marathon, five Boston Marathons and six New York Marathons, the latter in a best time of 2hr 36min.
Covid-19 thwarted his plans to run in the Tokyo Marathon last year.
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