Brent Baker
Brent Baker has 45 years of government public affairs and educational leadership experience. He is dean emeritus at the College of Communication, Boston University. He served as dean from 1992 to 2003 and retired from BU in 2005. He was a hands-on teaching dean and professor of communication. He was a pioneer in the integration of digital technology into communications education. In 1993, he was integrating online class newsgroups and, later, class websites into his teaching. He taught government public affairs courses to both undergraduates and graduate students.
He was a Navy public affairs officer for 29 years (1963-1992), which included duty from the Vietnam War to the 1991 Gulf War (Desert Storm). He is an expert on government-media relations and, in 1984, was a member of the Government Sidle Commission on Military-Media Relations in the wake of the 1983 Grenada Invasion. The commission had the task of establishing new rules for news media covering military combat operations. In 1992, when he retired from the Navy, he was serving as the senior public affairs advisor to the secretary of the Navy and chief of Naval Operations as a rear admiral and as Navy chief of information. He was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and holds various other military awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and Combat Action Ribbon.
He holds a BS in Radio, Television and Film from Northwestern University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also graduated with distinction from the Naval War College postgraduate program and attended the National Security Program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
He is the author of various articles, book chapters and two books: Integrated Communications in the Internet Era, Wadsworth-Thompson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2001, and Mass Communication: An Integrated Approach, Thompson Publishing, Belmont, CA, 2002. He is a coauthor of the first edition of The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications.
He was a Navy public affairs officer for 29 years (1963-1992), which included duty from the Vietnam War to the 1991 Gulf War (Desert Storm). He is an expert on government-media relations and, in 1984, was a member of the Government Sidle Commission on Military-Media Relations in the wake of the 1983 Grenada Invasion. The commission had the task of establishing new rules for news media covering military combat operations. In 1992, when he retired from the Navy, he was serving as the senior public affairs advisor to the secretary of the Navy and chief of Naval Operations as a rear admiral and as Navy chief of information. He was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and holds various other military awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and Combat Action Ribbon.
He holds a BS in Radio, Television and Film from Northwestern University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also graduated with distinction from the Naval War College postgraduate program and attended the National Security Program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
He is the author of various articles, book chapters and two books: Integrated Communications in the Internet Era, Wadsworth-Thompson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2001, and Mass Communication: An Integrated Approach, Thompson Publishing, Belmont, CA, 2002. He is a coauthor of the first edition of The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications.
