Throughout her professional life, Beverley Baker's experiences have encouraged her to understand community from a systems perspective. Baker currently serves as the Chief Impact Officer at the United Way of Champaign County (UWCC) and will begin a new role in spring 2026 as that organization's President and Chief Executive Officer. She serves on the Family Resiliency Center (FRC)'s Steering Committee and is a member of the FRC Collaboratory.
"What I have valued and enjoyed the most through my various roles here with United Way has been building bridges across our community," Baker said. "We call it connecting the dots—bringing together people who might not know each other but whose complementary expertise, interests and resources can help lift the community."
Baker arrived in Champaign in 2006 after running a mentoring program for early childhood professionals at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. That program required her to connect the dots as well—to coordinate across community systems, among city councils and with local partners. Prior to the mentoring program, Baker taught in and subsequently directed a childcare center in Iowa.
"As I looked at the children and families at the center, I felt myself wanting to do something about societal issues that were really challenging for families to be successful," she said. "I realized that the classroom wasn’t for me."
One early experience that challenged her family's success was the death of Baker's father when she was four years old—an event that precipitated becoming an intergenerational household. She described how the strain of this event and its aftermath changed her family, influenced her choice to train in early childhood education, and informed her perspective on how families can thrive.
"Once I started taking sociology and psychology classes in school, I realized that I gravitated to early childhood because that age range has always felt important to me as someone who lost a father at age four. I still feel passionate about those issues, like literacy and quality childcare," Baker said. "And then I think about my experiences in an intergenerational household, living with my sister, mother, grandmother, and later my stepfather. When I look beyond early childhood to the broader community, I think about those intergenerational experiences. I love working with children as much as with older adults, and I think it's because of those intergenerational experiences I was fortunate to have and the nurturing that my sister and I received. Care for community, doing what you can for other people—that was instilled in us."
Baker has found that care for community is woven into the fabric of Champaign County, as well. Although she has lived in many locations across the Midwest, Champaign is where she chose to settle with her family.
"The caring power of this community is remarkable," she said. "Every time we ask for something, this community delivers. I have seen that in every community that I have been in, but the level of generosity that we have experienced here has made the place extra special for us."
Generosity and a passion for research translation is also what has motivated Baker's involvement with and contributions to FRC.
"We moved to town in 2006, which is just about when FRC was starting as well. The research that happens on campus and the knowledge that is produced—I just want to help figure out how we get all of that back into our community," she said. "That has always been my passion and interest in FRC."
She elaborated that the current FRC Strategic Plan, launched in 2023, prioritizes the work of bringing together university and community to tackle wicked problems from a holistic approach. That plan broadened the Center's prior research focus on food and family to span five intersecting areas.
"I got to know [FRC Director] Jacinda [Dariotis] right when she arrived in town, and I was glad to see it, because I don't think the broader local community knew everything that FRC was and what they had to offer," she said. "The Center's more streamlined, initial focus was perfectly fine, and that research was certainly important work, but there is so much that goes into creating resilient families. I love seeing that broader perspective."
In her forthcoming role as UWCC's President and Chief Executive Officer, Baker notes that she will continue much of the United Way's existing programming while also constantly assessing community needs to adopt an appropriately broad perspective.
"The world changes, and we need to change with it. People have so many ways to give, and so many different places and causes and issues to give to. I need to make sure that we keep ourselves visible, approachable, and accessible to provide opportunities for people to engage with us," she said. "It's really hard to make community-level change. There are limited resources available. But how can we do the most good with the dollars that we do have? I want to be able to look back and know that we have made some improvements, done good work with our partners in the community, and left things better than we found them."