Lisa Baker
Professor and Chair
School of Public Health
Department of Social Work
1605 CHS Building 1
lbaker2@samford.edu
205-726-4882

Lisa Baker, PhD, LCSW is professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at Samford University. She holds a MSW (1991, Florida International University) and PhD in social welfare (1998, University of Georgia).  In addition, Baker is a licensed certified social worker (AL) with over 15 years of post-MSW clinical experience as well as more than 15 years in higher education. Baker has over 12 years experience in online education including curriculum development, course development and integration of technology.

Her areas of research and scholarship include evidence-based education, disaster preparedness and response, pediatric and perinatal health social work and online education. A current interest is the use of telepresence robots and virtual reality to engage online students in simulation. She has published and presented nationally on these topics, including co-authoring Disasters and Vulnerable Populations: Evidence-based Practice for the Helping Professions (Springer, 2015), which reviews and synthesizes current evidence on disaster preparedness and response within a variety of vulnerable populations. In 2009, she worked on a project for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security evaluating public education resources for radiation disasters, and is an evaluator on grants from the National Science Foundation. Baker is also a disaster mental health responder with the AL-1 National Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

Degrees

  • PhD, social welfare, University of Georgia
  • Master of Social Work, Florida International University
  • Bachelor of Social Work, University of Georgia

Involvement

  • National Association of Perinatal Social Work, president (2016-2018)
  • Vestavia Hills Board of Education, president (2020-2021)

Expertise and Research Areas

  • Maternal and child health
  • Evidence-based education and clinical practice
  • Disaster preparedness and response
  • Online education

Recent Publications

  • Baker,  L.R. (2020). Perinatal Social Work in the Midst of a Pandemic: Caring for Clients and Yourself. NAPSW Forum, 40(2).
  • Baker, L.R., Cormier, L.A., & Vogtle, L. (in press). Using an Education Intervention to Increase Preparedness Among Pet Owners: Results of a Pilot Study. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.      
  • Baker. L.R. & Hitchcock, L.I. (2017). Using Pinterest in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Assignment Development and Pilot Survey Results. Journal of Social Work Education. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/10437797.2016.1272515
  • Hynan, M.T., Steinberg, Z., Baker, L., Cicco, R., Geller, P.A., Lassen, S., Milford, C., Mounts, K.O., Patterson, C., Saxton, S., Segre, A., & Stuebe, A. (2015). Recommendations for Mental Health Professionals in the NICU. Journal of Perinatology. 35 (s1), s14-s19.
  • Baker, L.R. (2014). Stress Management and Healthcare Workers. In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior and Society. San Francisco, CA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Baker, L.R. & Cormier, L.A. (2013). Disaster preparedness and families of children with  special needs: A geographic comparison. Journal of Community Health. 38 (1),106-12

Recent Presentations

  • Baker, L. (2019, May) Walk this Way: Embracing the role of research in perinatal social work. (Plenary) National Association of Perinatal Social Work Annual Meeting. Savannah, GA.
  • Baker, L. and Roberson, C. J. (2018, November). Using interprofessional simulation to teach disaster response to social work students. Presentation at the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Orlando, FL.       
  • Baker, L.R. & Cormier, L.A. (April, 2017). Preparing Households with Pets for Disasters: A Community Collaboration. 2017 Preparedness Summit, Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Baker, L.R. (January, 2017). When Weather Emergencies Hit: A Campus Survey of University Employees. Presentation at the Society for Social Work and Research conference, New Orleans, LA.
  • Hitchcock, L. I. (presenter) and Baker, L.R. (March, 2016) Using Pinterest in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Assignment Development and Evaluation. Presentation at the Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors Meeting. Dallas, TX.
  • Baker, L.R. (January, 2015). Evaluation of a Community-based Approach to Disaster Preparedness: The Ready Scouts Project. Presentation at the Society for Social Work and  Research, New Orleans, LA.
  • Baker, L.R. (April, 2014). Maternal and Child Health Issues in Disaster Preparedness and Response. Invited presentation for the Alabama Public Health Association conference. Birmingham, AL