[citation needed] Whitaker was most recently the Executive Vice President, Strategic Affiliations and Associate Dean of Community-based Research at the Pritzker School of Medicine.
Prior to his appointment at the State, Whitaker was an attending physician in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and a member of its Collaborative Research Unit.
His chief of staff at the IDPH, Quinshaunta R. Golden, was subsequently indicted on seven federal counts including bribery, theft, witness tampering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice for allegedly “conspiring with state grant recipients to divert federal money [as much as $433,000] into her own pockets and then trying to cover it up” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Golden was ordered to pay $1,000,000 in restitution to IDPH, jointly and severally with Roxanne Jackson, a defendant in a separate but related case.
)[12][13][14] Whitaker left the Illinois Department of Public Health in late 2007 to work with Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago's School of Medicine, along with Ms. Golden,[15] where he was executive vice president of strategic affiliations and associate dean.