Dr. Baker received her Bachelor’s degree in zoology from North Dakota State University, Fargo. She has always held a keen interest in pit-vipers and moved to Illinois to receive her Master’s in Biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Dr. Christopher A. Phillips’ Herpetology Lab. She completed her Master’s work in 2009 on the “Ecophysiology of the Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) at Carlyle Lake, Illinois”. She then continued to pursue a doctoral degree in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental sciences expanding on the long-term demographic data collected on the Eastern Massasauga. In 2016, she completed her Ph.D. and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Urban Biotic Assessment Program. Dr. Baker then worked briefly as a Herpetologist for Arizona Game and Fish Department but has now settled as an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department and McNeese State University, Lousiana.