Dear USD Community:

After seven remarkable years serving as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Gail F. Baker has informed me that she will step down from her administrative duties in the spring of 2025. After a well-deserved sabbatical, she will return to teaching.

From her first day as provost, Dr. Baker has embraced USD’s mission, vision and values and it is hard to imagine where we would be today without her steadfast commitment to this university. A woman of deep faith who prefers to let her actions speak louder than her words, Dr. Baker has led with integrity and never wavered from her core belief in the inherent dignity of every human being.

Dr. Baker has served as USD’s chief academic officer during one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of American higher education. The role of a provost has always been challenging, but in recent years it has become even more demanding. Despite the challenges we have faced as a university community, Dr. Baker has helped USD navigate these uncharted waters and kept the university focused on the vision, goals, and objectives outlined in Envisioning 2024. She has been a champion for inclusive excellence, and due to her strong leadership and effectiveness, USD will soon be recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution and our academic profile as a Research II university has grown immensely.

During her tenure as provost, she has attracted and retained an outstanding team of academic deans and overseen the growth of the tenure-track faculty. Last year, in addition to her duties as provost, she served as the Interim Dean of the Kroc School of Peace Studies and in 2020 she also served as the university’s Chief Diversity Officer.

Thanks to her strong advocacy for enhancing academic excellence at USD, the university now has the highest number of tenure-track faculty in its history and our academic reputation has grown due to their outstanding scholarship and teaching. She also championed the creation of a faculty compensation plan, which the university completed two years ahead of schedule. This past year, she co-chaired the university’s strategic planning efforts, resulting in the creation of four cornerstone commitments that will serve as the foundation for USD’s next strategic plan.

Dr. Baker has served in national leadership roles and has received numerous awards and recognitions. In 2021, she was selected by her peers nationwide to serve as the President of the Association of Chief Academic Officers. In 2020, she was recognized in her hometown of Chicago by the Circuit Court of Cook County as an African-American Community Treasure. She has also remained an active writer, scholar and documentarian. She is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer, and this fall her latest collaboration, House Music: A Cultural Revolution, a documentary on the origins of House Music, will premiere on WTTW in Chicago.

The search for a new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs will begin this month, and Vice President for Student Affairs Charlotte Johnson will lead the search committee. I will be consulting with the deans and the leadership of the University Senate regarding the makeup of the search committee and hope to name a new provost by the beginning of the spring semester.

Personally, I am indebted to Dr. Baker for being such a wonderful colleague and friend. She has demonstrated what it means to lead with grace under pressure and to serve with humility. When she accepted the role of provost, she said she was excited to help USD achieve its vision as outlined in Envisioning 2024. She has agreed to stay until we identify a new provost, fulfilling the commitment she made to see USD through 2024.

Please join me in thanking her for her outstanding service to USD and wishing her well as she embarks on what I know will be another fruitful chapter in her storied career.

Peace,
Jim

James T. Harris III, D.Ed.
President