Baker succeeds Jill N. Reich, who has served as vice president and dean since 2000. Last fall, Reich announced her plan to step down from the post on June 30 and, following a sabbatical, return as professor of psychology.

In announcing Baker’s appointment, President Hansen noted that “Pam Baker is both an outstanding teacher and researcher in her field who regularly involves her students in the creation of new knowledge. I have appointed Pam to this key leadership position with great pleasure and am excited about what I know will be her continuing contributions to Bates in this role.”

“A deep understanding of what makes Bates a national and international leader….”

Baker earned a bachelor of science degree in biology, cum laude, from Bates in 1969. She received a master’s degree and doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo, joining the Bates biology faculty in 1989 and being promoted to associate professor in 1996. A distinguished researcher and teacher, she was named the inaugural Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences in 2005.

Hansen added that Baker “has a deep understanding of what makes Bates a national and international leader in liberal arts and sciences education. She was nominated for this position by her peers and comes highly recommended by them as well as by Dean Reich — herself a model for outstanding performance in the position.”

Baker’s nomination was forwarded to President Hansen by a 10-member search committee of faculty and staff chaired by Sowell Professor of Economics James W. Hughes and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Holly A. Ewing.

The vice president and dean of the faculty serves as an advocate for a strong faculty as the foundation of an outstanding College. The office of the VPAA recruits, develops and evaluates faculty members; fosters the development of academic programs; and cultivates excellence in the academic and intellectual life of the Bates community.

A member of the College’s senior staff, the VPAA is involved in long-term policy making and strategic planning and works closely with the Office of College Advancement to secure funding for the faculty and academic programs, including student-faculty research. The VPAA oversees a range of programs integral to the academic mission at Bates, including the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, the Department of Athletics and the Bates College Museum of Art.

At Bates, Baker’s teaching and research has focused on cell and molecular biology and immunology. She has developed a laboratory model for periodontal disease that she has used to demonstrate the roles of genetics and the immune system in bone loss in the jaw. Widely recognized in the field of immunology, her research has earned major grant support from the National Institutes of Health.

“We are constantly learning and revising what we know.”

Baker has involved many student research collaborators in her work, noting that “having a research project that I can involve students in is some of the best kind of learning we can give.” Of her teaching and research mission, she says that “we are constantly learning and revising what we know. It is our responsibility to get the students to think about the implications of what we know and what we’re still learning.”

In the area of academic administration, she was instrumental in establishing Bates’ interdisciplinary Program in Biological Chemistry and served as chair of the faculty’s Division of the Natural Sciences before becoming associate dean of the faculty, overseeing faculty research and scholarship, in 2002.

Baker lives in South Paris, Maine, with her husband, David Baker, a 1970 Bates graduate who is acting director of academic operations for finance at Bates and a clinical dentist. In 2005, the Bakers together traveled to India on Fulbright sabbaticals to study public health dentistry at Maulana Azad Dental College in New Delhi.

Bates College has named Pamela Baker, a biology professor known for her research into periodontal disease, as the college’s first Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences.

This endowed professorship honors Dr. Papaioanou, of Grosse Pointe City, Mich. A member of the Bates class of 1949 and a trustee emerita, Papaioanou is a longtime allergy, asthma and immunology specialist in the Detroit area. The Papaioanou chair was established with a gift from Ralph Perry, class of 1951, and his wife, Mary Louise Seldenfleur, of Orrs Island.

“It is a real honor to be chosen for a distinction that pays tribute to such a wonderful person as Helen, who embodies the best of our mission at Bates,” says Baker. “She has had a distinguished career as a doctor, and is a warm and generous person who has always taken the time to get to know faculty and staff and support their work.”

A member of the Bates class of 1970, Baker began teaching at Bates in 1989. Her teaching focuses on cell and molecular biology and immunology. As a researcher, Baker has developed a laboratory model for periodontal disease that she has used to demonstrate the roles of genetics and the immune system in bone loss in the jaw. This research is widely recognized in the field of immunology and has earned major grant support from the National Institutes of Health. In addition, Baker has involved many student research collaborators in this work.

“Pam Baker possesses an incredible intellectual generosity, devoting her time and considerable talents to her students, involving them in her research and helping them make their own scientific discoveries,” says Jill Reich, dean of faculty. “And beyond all that, she herself is an indefatigable learner. Her curiosity and openness to new ideas make her a model for students and fellow faculty alike.”

Baker recently received a Phillips Faculty Fellowship at Bates to support her sabbatical research during the next academic year, and a Fulbright Fellowship to support her work during the sabbatical on the development of research-based undergraduate biochemistry curricula with faculty at Maulana Azad Dental College in Delhi, India.

Baker has been a creative and effective faculty leader. She was instrumental in establishing the college’s Program in Biological Chemistry and has served as chair of the Division of the Natural Sciences and, most recently, as associate dean of the faculty.

Baker and her husband, David Baker, have lived in Auburn for eight years. A member of the Bates class of 1970, David Baker is an associate at Willow Run Dental Associates, Auburn, and teaches in the dental hygiene program at the University of New England. Their daughter, Kate, is finishing a master’s degree at Rochester Institute of Technology in a combined study of graphic design and secondary special education.

Pamela Baker earned a bachelor of science degree in biology at Bates and a like degree in zoology at the University of Wales at Swansea. She received her master’s degree and doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

A pediatrician and educator, Helen Papaioanou served as a Bates trustee from 1965 until 1999. A biology major at Bates, she received her medical degree from Boston University and a master’s of science from the University of Michigan.

She is credited with leading the modernization of the Bates health center in the 1970s, and in the 1990s she chaired the college’s $59 million fund-raising campaign and was the trustee leader of fund raising for construction of Pettengill Hall. Bates awarded Papaioanou an honorary doctor of science degree in 1997 and the Benjamin E. Mays Medal, the college’s highest alumni award, in 2003.

In the Bates contingent were Rachel Austin, assistant professor of chemistry; three associate professors from the biology department, Pamela Baker, Lee Abrahamsen and Nancy Kleckner; and John Kelsey, professor of psychology. Bates was one of 29 colleges and universities to send a team to the institute, which took place at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif.

The SENCER Summer Institute was designed to support a national reform effort broadening the relevance of undergraduate science education. “The overall idea was that learning can be improved by connecting the teaching of science to current global issues, particularly those which are complex and largely unsolved,” says Pamela Baker.

“Many of the issues we face as citizens have a science or technology dimension,” Baker continues. “While not everyone can be an expert on everything, learning to be a critical thinker and knowing how scientfic knowledge is produced can help people contribute to these debates and decisions.”

Participants in the SENCER institute proposed courses that teach rigorous science content through problems that require scientific knowledge and expertise.

SENCER is planned as a five-year national dissemination project that will promote reform through faculty development, a focus on local systemic change and improved assessment strategies. The project is supported with a grant from the National Science Foundation and has three goals: 1) to improve science education, especially for students who will never major in a scientific field; 2) to connect science education reform to more robust and relevant general education programs; and 3) to stimulate informed civic engagement with scientific questions on the part of today’s students.

Divorcing scientific facts from the social context and the research methodology of the era in which they were discovered “makes it very difficult for people to apply those facts in the real world,” says Baker. “Making an effort to tie science education to real-life issues not only motivates students to learn the facts, but helps them learn to apply the scientific thinking process to issues they encounter in the future.”

She added, “It was gratifying to see that Bates is quite far ahead of many places in doing this kind of teaching.”

The Association of American Colleges and Universities is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U has more than 700 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.