Dr. Audrey M. Baker has served one year as an Education Consultant with the Executive Leadership Institute. Dr. Baker began her career as a special education teacher in one of the few independent special education high schools in District 75. She held numerous positions, ranging from teacher, teacher mentor, director of a day treatment program, a Special Education Assistant Principal, Director of Pupil Personnel Services for 24,000 students, and as a Principal of a middle school. She has had extensive experience with diverse school environments in all grade levels that included, but not limited to:
The School for the Deaf, a residential facility in Nanuet, NY for students with physical and mental disabilities, agency and hospital facilities, and foster care. She was responsible for students at sites who were bilingual, autistic, visually-limited, pregnant, and recently released from the criminal justice system. She was certified as an Impartial Hearing Officer. She was trained as a district Local Equal Opportunity Coordinator (LEOC). As a principal, her middle school site was one of the few full-service schools in New York City, now known as a community school, that housed a full-time medical and mental health clinic and where full ophthalmological services were provided.
Dr. Baker is a product of the New York City public school system. While participating in an intensive Chinese program in high school, she won a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship in Chinese for a summer program at Columbia University. She then pursued a BA in Linguistics with a minor in Chinese at CUNY Queens College and completed a MS in Education Administration and Supervision from Pace University. She attended the Principal’s Center at Harvard University. She completed a special Prevention of Violence Training Program under the auspices of the Harvard School of Public Health. She has an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Martins College and Seminary and an Ed.D. from the CSA/CITE/Sage Colleges of Albany. Dr. Baker is a certified Mental Health First Aid USA Responder.
Since her retirement from the NYC Department of Education, Dr. Baker has served as a special education instructor at CUNY City University, as a Professional Development and Education Consultant serving high needs school districts in New York City and the Hempstead, Long Island School District, and for several education corporations. She has assisted schools interested in employing a variety of strategies to increase parent involvement and family engagement. She was also a facilitator in the DOE/LIU Parent Academy Partnership. To remain current with the education landscape, Dr. Baker attends professional conferences concerning academic instruction, medical and mental health issues, legal mandates, school safety and emergency preparedness, special education, race, equity and leadership and attends the exceptional ELI results driven- leadership training for the New York City school leaders.