John Baker, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
College of Public Health

John Baker, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Prior to transferring to UAMS in 2005, he was a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since 1980. He was the founding faculty member and Chairman of the Graduate Program in Health Services Administration at UALR for sixteen years. The program is one of eighty-three accredited by the Commission on Accreditation Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) graduate programs in health services administration.

Dr. Baker teaches in the areas of health management, organizational behavior and leadership, health care quality management and health policy and decision making. His research focus is on the management of health institutions,  quality improvement, managed care and cost containment. He consults with hospitals, medical groups, long-term care facilities and managed care organizations on a variety of strategic and operational issues.

He has also served on the boards of numerous professional and community organizations including the Health Administration Press, American College of Healthcare Executives, the Arkansas Health Executives Forum and the Partnership for Healthy Communities. He also served as Executive Director of the Arkansas Commission on Health Care Cost Containment.  

Prior to joining the UALR faculty, he was a health administration faculty member at the University of Mississippi, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Ohio State University. His undergraduate and MBA degrees are from the University of Rhode Island and a doctoral degree in organizational behavior and health administration from The Ohio State University.