Audrey Baker is the Manager of Applied Learning & Evaluation in the Cornell MPH Program. She is a double alumna of Cornell University, receiving her BS and MPA from the College of Human Ecology.

Audrey’s interest in public health began after completing Cornell’s Biology and Society Program. “I graduated in 2009 amidst a global economic crisis, and environmental and social justice issues were in the forefront of news and academia,” she says. “I became interested in the food system and in public institutions as means of addressing multiple intersecting crises.”

Audrey has been teaching in various capacities throughout her career, beginning when she was in high school. “I taught art classes to elementary school students. After college, I began to teach elementary and middle schoolers about food, including nutrition and agriculture, especially through school gardens and farm-to-school programs,” says Audrey. “Working in school gardens and with school food, I saw kids becoming more connected to the earth and environmental stewardship, while having equal access to fresh nutritious foods, and helping to foster food justice in their communities.” Audrey also taught a food systems course in the Auburn state prison.

In addition to her involvement in projects that focus on community gardens, school gardens, and healthy foods in schools, Audrey has worked with nonprofit programs in Tompkins County that support food security for many families in New York State. She is currently interested in the politics of emerging technologies in the food system and their impact on different aspects of equity and sustainability.

Working in the Cornell MPH Program for the last five years, Audrey has lectured in food systems courses and now focuses on professional development and portfolio and capstone support seminars for MPH students. “My favorite part about teaching is staying connected with alumni who go out into the world and do amazing things, hearing how their MPH education helped to prepare them for their jobs,” says Audrey. “It’s often the skills we teach in systems thinking that not only help them land a job, but also serve them most in their work.”

Written by Katie Lesser and Zoe Wakoff