Jen Baker

Background

About Jen Baker

Jen Baker is a community organizer and youth advocate with an academic, non-profit, and public sector history that illustrates her experience and expertise in violence prevention and education. Jen holds a master’s degree in Youth Development, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Psychology, and Humanities, with a specialization in Women, Gender and Social Justice. She is also a former board member at-large for Lansing Association for Human Rights. In 2008, Jen designed and managed the Violence Intervention & Prevention Project, an arts-based youth program that utilized empathy training and emotional competency as a means of combatting and transcending all forms of violence. She also designed and facilitated a workshop for Michigan State University's Girls to Women Conference that focused on relational aggression among teen girls, with an emphasis on stereotyping, labeling, and targeting on the basis of difference. Jen is a trained and experienced mediator, previously partnering with Lansing Public Schools and Central Michigan Restorative Justice Initiative, to teach peer conflict resolution skills to students. She has also partnered with youth organizations One Love Global and The Power of 9 for multiple youth anti-violence events. In 2011, Jen was the Concept Artist for and Co-Director of the “I Was Here” Project, a traveling art installation designed to bring awareness to bullying/bullycide. The project was displayed at the Michigan State Capitol, where she was invited to speak to lawmakers on the importance of passing anti-bullying legislation. She was also a contributing artist for “16 Days, Lansing: A night of Remembrance’, an exhibit honoring victims of gender violence. Jen's recent work includes serving as a mentor for Peace and Prosperity Youth Action Movement. She was also the concept artist for a mural commissioned by Michigan State University’s Sexual Assault Program, as well as commissioned artist for Sparrow Hospital’s Lansing community mural.