Sept. 28, 2017 BALTIMORE, MD - Johns Hopkins University Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna W. Shanahan has announced the hiring of Jennifer Baker in the newly-created position of Senior Associate Director of Athletics. Baker began her tenure at Johns Hopkins on September 7.
Baker will provide strategic leadership in the planning, development and management of all fiscal and administrative operations and will also serve as the department's liaison with human resources. She will direct all revenue-generating initiatives and short and long-term budget planning for a highly-successful 24-sport varsity athletic program as well as a vibrant recreation program that services the entire Johns Hopkins community.
In addition, Baker will develop, design and implement leadership development programming for coaches, staff and more than 600 varsity athletes as well as student leaders in the department of recreation. She will also serve as the administrative contact for the Blue Jay football and women's soccer programs.
Baker comes to Johns Hopkins from Under Armour, where she served as a Senior Manager of Corporate Real Estate, Facilities and Operations. She was responsible for the daily operation of all UA facilities at its nearby Port Covington headquarters and provided support to all UA offices outside of Baltimore. That support included new facility activation, vendor relationships and energy management. One of Baker's key initiatives at UA was the activation of the company's newest offices in San Francisco and Portland.
Prior to her time at Under Armour, Baker spent three years at Cornell University, where she ascended to the position of Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities and played an integral role in the oversight of all internal department operations as a member of the senior leadership team. She was responsible for all athletic facilities, and integral in the budgeting, planning and programming of all related projects.
During her time at Cornell, Baker also designed and developed the Big Red Leadership Institute (BRLI), a program for more than 500 student-athletes across all 37 varsity athletic teams at the school. The BRLI delivered key leadership concepts set in the athletics context with a mission of building confident leaders and followers who provided immediate impact to their teams and communities.
With the BRLI, Baker implemented five separate, but complementary, proprietary developmental curricula for five distinct student cohorts (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, non-captain seniors and captains). Each group moved through a unique curriculum designed specifically for their class year and corresponding level of influence and responsibility.
Baker is a co-founder of Athletics Leadership Consulting (ALC), whose mission is to make leadership development accessible to all athletes, coaches and organizational support staff. ALC leverages athletics as a tool for leadership education as it designs and delivers original content that allows athletes to develop leadership and teamwork skills as an integrated component of their competitive experience.
Baker graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in aerospace engineering and was a member of the Academy's women's lacrosse team. She later earned an MBA and a master's in mechanical engineering from Cornell.
After graduating from the Naval Academy, Baker spent seven years in the Navy, including three years as a pilot and four as a construction manager and facilities engineer.
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