ACHIEVERS
The Oklahoma Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators recently presented University of Central Oklahoma professor Kelly Baker with the 2018 Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award.
For more than 30 years, Baker has contributed to early childhood education, a field that focuses on children in preschool through third grade and their families. She recently served as coordinator for UCO’s Early Childhood Education program.
“Dr. Baker demonstrates strong leadership, professionalism, self-reflective practices and mentoring, and she is most deserving of this honor. I’ve known her for more than 25 years and she has been steadfastly focused on what is best for young children and for her university students,” said Kathryn Castle, a professor emerita at Oklahoma State University.
The state association, founded in 1996, is an affiliate of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, of which Baker is a former president.
Baker holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction specializing in Early Childhood Education. She joined the UCO faculty in 2008 with previous experience as a UCO faculty member from 1989 to 1995. Before that, she taught kindergarten, first and second grades in Oklahoma public schools. She also has worked as an adjunct professor at UCO and at Southern Nazarene University.