Jen Baker was hired to begin the Big Red Leadership Institute program in September 2013. She was promoted to Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities in August 2015 after serving as Assistant Director of Athletics for Administration during the 2014-15 school year.
The Big Red Leadership Institute is a four-year leadership and character development curriculum for a select group of student-athletes. Programming will be offered to all freshmen and a select group of underclassmen. The training will support Cornell's athletic team captains and also serve as a support resource for the Big Red coaches. Many of the opportunities will also be available to coaches and staff throughout the year. The emphasis of the program will be on self-awareness, self-reflection, personal and collective accountability, discipline, composure under adversity and communication.
"The collegiate athletic experience is an ideal time to test and grow one's teamwork and leadership skills, and the Big Red Leadership Institute will provide an accessible framework through which our student athletes can explore and enhance these skills," Baker said. "I believe that being a good teammate and a good team leader – especially under adverse conditions - will not only create more opportunities for success while competing, but will continue to create lifelong opportunities for success."
Baker's background made her uniquely qualified to start the Big Red Leadership Institute. A three-year letter winner who served as Executive Officer of the 1998 NIRSA National Lacrosse Club Championship team, Baker graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with distinction in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in French. She was a member of the Engineering and Foreign Language Honor Societies as an undergraduate. She graduated from Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2012, where she was a Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow and a Johnson Leadership Fellow. She earned a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering as a Knight Scholar in 2013. She has also been an instructor with The Program, which helps provide professional and collegiate athletic team with the best leadership development and team building services in the country.
Baker served seven years on active duty in the Navy, as a pilot that was ultimately assigned to FA-18s, and as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer. After finishing her service commitment, Baker went into private business before moving into teaching and coaching lacrosse full-time at Cape Henry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach, Va.
Baker has worked with the women's lacrosse program since 2011, first as a volunteer assistant coach and later as Director of Operations. She has worked with several Cornell teams as a yoga instructor.
"We already know that Cornell athletes are an elite group, but as part of this program, they will develop teamwork and leadership skills that will allow them to further differentiate themselves not simply within the NCAA, but also in the classroom, in their chosen careers and throughout their respective communities," Baker said.
Updated June 2016
