George A. Baker III was named to the Joseph D. Moore Endowed Chair in Community College Leadership at North Carolina State University in August 1992 and remained in that position until his retirement in June 2001. He is currently the Joseph D. Moore Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at NCSU and the Director of College Planning Systems, a private consulting organization. Prior to these assignments he served 21 years in the US Marine Corps, then 14 years as Professor of Higher and Community College Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Baker holds undergraduate degrees from Warren Wilson College and Presbyterian College, master’s degrees in counseling psychology from Shippensburg State University and in public administration from the Naval War College, and a doctor of education degree in educational administration from Duke University. In addition to teaching and mentoring, Dr. Baker is a prolific author and has made keynote presentations, provided workshops or conducted research for over 750 organizations. The University of Texas has honored Dr. Baker and his wife Irene with an endowed scholarship in their names.

Dr. Baker established the National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness (NILIE) in 1990 at the University of Texas-Austin and brought the program to NCSU when he accepted the Moore Chair in 1992. Under his leadership, the Community College Climate Instrument (CCCI), which was used initially in NILIE’s work, was redesigned as the Personal Assessment of Campus Environment (PACE) survey. The Student Assessment of Campus Environment (SACE) and Cultural, Environmental, Structural and Technical Assessment (CESTA, no longer available) were added later. To date, more than 100 community colleges have used one or more of the surveys, in some cases multiple times, and a national norm base has been created for benchmarking purposes.

Dr. Baker’s vision for NILIE included three key elements: a high quality research program on leadership and organizational effectiveness; services to community colleges in the form of climate assessments, consultation, conferences and publications; and opportunities for NCSU graduate students to learn and grow through experience with research. These three elements continue to be the focus of the NILIE program today.