Jennifer S. Baker

Associate Vice Provost and Director of Athletics and Recreation

Jennifer S. Baker serves as Associate Vice Provost and Director of Athletics and Recreation at Johns Hopkins, leading the university’s 24-sport varsity athletics program. Additionally, Baker is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan to guide the department through 2025 with a focus on competitive excellence, the student-athlete experience, and community building.

A member of the Athletics senior leadership team since her arrival at Homewood in 2017, Baker initially served as the Senior Associate Director before becoming the university’s fifth Director of Athletics since 1950. Under her leadership, the Ralph S. O’Connor Center for Recreation and Well-being has undergone a $27 million expansion and renovation; Athletics has launched Blue Jays LEAD, a leadership development program for student-athletes; and in 2022 the university won its first-ever LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup, presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities in the U.S. with the most success in collegiate athletics.

Baker came to Hopkins from Under Armour, where she was Senior Manager of Corporate Real Estate, Facilities, and Operations. Baker also 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 management of all internal department operations.

A native of the Baltimore area, Baker attended Hereford High School before earning a degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Baker subsequently spent seven years in the Navy, including three years as a pilot and four as a construction manager and facilities engineer, before obtaining an MBA and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell.