Baker named associate provost of student success

Jake Sellers Staff Reporter

Shannon Baker was named associate provost of student success during the Oklahoma State University A&M Board of Regents meeting on June 16 in Oklahoma City.

In this role, Baker will provide leadership, advocacy, coordination and recommendations for academic and non-academic initiatives supporting student success and persistence at OSU.

Baker will support efforts throughout campus to design and imple ment an aggressive university-wide strategy for the improvement in reten tion among undergraduate students and persistence toward graduation.

While the Divisions of Academic

Affairs and Student Affairs and the individual colleges have made student success a priority, OSU provost Jeanette Mendez said the associate provost of student success will take a focused approach to ensure students are well equipped to succeed at OSU. It’s a need Dr. Mendez identified early on when she was officially appointed to her role in May 2022.

“We didn’t have one person who was centrally looking across the entire enterprise of OSU and thinking about best practices and where we could be doing better,” Mendez said. “I’m excited about the impact Dr. Baker will have in this position. We hired someone who has been a faculty member but has spent the latter part of her career working with broader programs to help students succeed. I think Dr. Baker’s skillset certainly matches the student body that we see here at OSU. She has led some really key initiatives, and I’m excited to get a new perspective and someone who is going to wake up every morning thinking about student success and what we could be doing better.”

Baker also will hold an appointment as a teaching professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of History.

Prior to this role, Baker served as a professor of history at Texas A&M University, Kingsville, and as the associate vice president for student success (2020-23) and in the same role on an interim basis (2018-20). She also served as assistant and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, working on student success, curricular and faculty issues for the college.

Baker was department chair for seven years, leading the Department of History and the newly formed Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy. She earned her Ph.D. from Texas Christian University and specializes in Latin American history.

“Dr. Baker has a long record of helping students succeed in college, especially first-generation college students who are so crucial to our landgrant mission,” said Chris Francisco, vice provost. “Her experience in running academic programs for students and overseeing advising and other aspects of student support will be invaluable at Oklahoma State. I’m so pleased she will be bringing her creative ideas to OSU and look forward to her coordinating our student success efforts across campus.” news.ed@ocolly.com