In Memory of Erin Ruth Baker
We are very sad to share that our colleague in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Associate Professor Erin Ruth Baker, passed away on Friday, March 7, 2025, at home surrounded by family.
Dr. Erin Ruth Baker joined the faculty of our School of Education’s Division of Educational Psychology and Methodology in 2016 after earning her PhD in Psychology from Bowling Green State University in the same year. Dr. Baker’s research focused on children’s growing capacities as social and moral agents in their world, particularly during the preschool years (3-6 years old). Her investigations examined children’s cognitive abilities (for example, their ability to plan, monitor, and manage their behavior), social and moral understanding (for example, children’s Theory of Mind and moral reasoning, social behaviors such as aggression), and the evolving conception of the morally agentic self. Recently, Dr. Baker focused on how moral action and decision-making were related to the contexts of children’s lives, particularly available resources and poverty and cultural influences. Looking at the intersections among these various influences produced significant contributions to our understanding of children’s moral reasoning and action.
Dr. Baker directed the Social Cognition in Preschool (SCIP) Lab, a team of researchers at UAlbany and beyond interested in how young children think about friendships and act within their social relationships. Dr. Baker made conscious efforts to include as collaborators in her research UAlbany undergraduates, graduate students, and alums, and her team presented at conferences including the Society for Research on Child Development, the Society for Research on Adolescence, the Cognitive Development Society, the International Society for Research on Aggression, and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Dr. Baker published her research in many scholarly journals, including Aggressive Behavior, Cognitive Development, Development and Psychopathology, Early Education and Development, Journal of Cognition and Development, and Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Dr. Baker contributed significantly to the success of the School of Education’s undergraduate major in Human Development by assisting in curriculum planning, teaching semester-length courses, teaching extra one-credit undergraduate service courses, and mentoring nearly 50 undergraduate students in independent studies. She was actively involved in designing the Human Development undergraduate experience for Honors students and the University’s First Year Experience. She made additional contributions to undergraduate education at the School and the University levels. Dr. Baker was a member of the School of Education’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice/Climate Committee and served on the University’s Undergraduate Academic Council and related subcommittees since 2020. In summer 2024, Dr. Baker was named an inaugural UAlbany Honors College Faculty Fellow.
Please join us in honoring and celebrating Dr. Baker’s vitality, creativity, care, and innovation.