Richard Baker
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development
Richard Baker has 37 years of hands-on and executive level experience in program development, project management, strategic and organizational planning, operations, R&D, technology demonstration and evaluation. He implemented first-of-a-kind STEM initiatives in the K-12 setting fostering a high increase in interest, excitement, and participation to achieve improvement in academic performance. As a GL2 consultant, he develops and implements initiatives to prepare students and workers to be globally competitive. Initiatives implemented include Park and School District Cooperative Programs, Strengthening STEM Programs via Community Partnerships, and Technology-assisted Education and Training.
An accomplished leader, planner and management professional, he served in increasingly responsible federal and corporate leadership assignments from innovative education programs, facility siting and licensing, technology development, and to formulate projects to integrate industry, college, government and labor. He serves as a GL2 consultant with responsibility for developing Strategic Partnerships, and as an Education Advisor and Strategic Planner. In previous engagements, he led or supported programs described below.
He developed and implemented programs to achieve strong improvement in STEM Education and Training at the local and state level. Examples include: 1) Roadmap to a Better STEM Careers Workforce, 2) Building a Community-Focused Innovative STEM School Program with a National Reach, 3) The Technology Education Demonstration to Integrate Technology-Assisted Applications to Improve Academic Performance for Grades 6-12, 4) Applying the Community-wide Approach to Optimize Student Interaction for STEM with Mentors and Peers, 5) An Innovative Process to Foster STEM-Qualified Globally Competitive Students and Workers, and 6) School 2025 Project: Making Communities Global Leaders in the Future of Effective Public Education
He served as a Science Teacher in Rome NY responsible to develop and implement innovative programs designed to test and evaluate methods to improve academic performance. He led Project MASTER (Math and Science thru Environmental Resources) and ESSMOD (Earth Science Students Move Outdoors). To achieve academic goals, he used field work in the Catskill Mountains to test science, technology, engineering and math concepts applied in the classroom in an outdoor setting.
During his federal career with the U.S. Department of Energy Chicago Office (DOE-CH), he served in multiple leadership positions. As Director for Program Support Services, he led initiatives to support the DOE Offices of Science, Environmental Management, National Nuclear Security and Energy Reliability. As Manager for Program and Technology Development, he led projects to demonstrate solutions to address national challenges for environmental restoration, nuclear waste management and energy efficiency (100 projects, 5 states, budget of $1B dollars). He led technology development for the DOE-CH for national laboratories, facilities, universities and directed projects to accelerate tech transfer to federal and private sector sites (25 projects, 10 states, budget of $500M dollars). Richard served as CH Manager for New Production Reactor Support with responsibility for contractor acquisition, management, and integration of contracts totaling $10 billion dollars. He led Crystalline Repository Project activities to identify 12 acceptable sites including public outreach consisting of 80 briefings and meetings across 17 states.
Before joining DOE, Richard served as a Licensing Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority with responsibility for preparation of the application and licensing proceedings by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Awards, Professional Association Membership: Energy 100 Award for Technology Achievement: Improvements for Consumers, Vice Presidential Hammer Award: National Partnership for Reinventing Government, Exceptional Service Awards (5 years), Environmental Leadership: Dedication to the Principles of “Quality Leadership, Leadership Service Distinction, a member of Phi Kappa Phi.