Dr. Aaliyah Baker is a faculty member in the Department of Educational Administration at The University of Dayton (Dayton, OH) where she pursues research, teaching, and scholarship in communities of practice and place. She began her career as a K12 teacher with the Milwaukee Public School system. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Multicultural Education from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Dr. Baker’s scholarship utilizes frameworks such as critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and critical race theory through an array of independent and collaborative research projects in local, state, national, and international forums. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed books (including her recent forthcoming book titled Black Families' Resistance to Racial Inequity in Schools: Homeschooling and Pedagogies of Love), at national and international conferences, and publicly-engaged outlets. Dr. Baker’s research centers on an ethical commitment to uplifting marginalized perspectives and valuing human experience as knowledge. As an education ambassador and cultural exchange delegate, she traveled to Cuba with an interdisciplinary group of members from the National Association for Multicultural Education to foster a commitment to social justice. Dr. Baker serves as a faculty coordinator for the Moral Courage Project through the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center and faculty advisor and research chair to a diverse group of doctoral students who design, develop, and implement empirical studies focused on problems of practice as leaders in organizations. She practices interdisciplinary mentorship of graduate candidates in the fields of urban planning, public affairs, higher education academic affairs, criminal justice, and anthropology. Dr. Baker was named a Midwest Engaged Scholar of Campus Compact and a national founding member of the Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars (BFHES) Review Board of Scholars. She is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Urban Education. Dr. Baker is also the founder and owner of an educational consulting company through which she works to advance constructive dialogue around issues of race, identity, and culture and advocates for responsive practice in organizations.