Dr. Whitaker holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College, a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (1993) and a master's of public health from Harvard (1991). He completed his primary care and internal medicine residency at San Francisco General Hospital during the initial AIDS epidemic. In 2003, he accepted the position of Director of Illinois State Department of Public Health. In 2007, he joined The University of Chicago Medical Center as its executive vice-president for strategic alliances. His appointment at the University of Chicago includes community-based research to build a newwork of partnerships to broaden urban medical services.

Prior to his appointment in 2003, Dr. Whitaker was an attending physician in Internal Medicine at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital's Collaborative Research Unit. In 1998, he helped found Project Brotherhood: a Black Men's Clinic, which is a weekly clinic for African-American men housed in Woodlawn Adult Health Center on Chicago's Southside and funded by the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. Dr. Whitaker also is an assistant professor at Rush Medical College's Department of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and maintains his clinical association with Project Brotherhood.

Dr. Whitaker is married to Dr. Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Chicago's Rush medical College.