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Douglas Baird

Douglas Baird, PhD

Associate Professor & Director of Curricular Innovation and Student Success


Department: Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies, Neurobiology & Anatomy

Education

  • PhD in Biology - Yale University (1988)
  • MPhil in Biology - Yale University 1987)
  • MS in Biology - Yale University (1986)
  • BS in Life Sciences - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1980)

Awards & Honors

  • Participant in the inaugural Leadership Academy, a year-long course to develop leadership capacity as part of succession planning at Temple University (2006)
  • Co-directed course (Bio101 with J. Tanaka) selected as one of 20 “Best Practice” College Biology Courses in a national survey conducted for College Board by the Center for Educational Policy Research of the University of Oregon (September 2005-June 2006)
  • Goldberger/Boyne/Levine Endowment Teaching Award, Dept. Neurobiology & Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine (June 2004)
  • Nominated for Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching at Drexel College of Medicine (June 2004)

Douglas Baird, PhD, is director of curricular innovation and student success for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies at Drexel University College of Medicine. In this role, his efforts are directed toward the development of programming to build student skills—both inside and outside the classroom—for all students, but with a particular emphasis in the Division of Biomedical Sciences.

In 1993, Dr. Baird joined our predecessor school Medical College of Pennsylvania, where he directed a developmental neuroscience research laboratory as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, remaining through the name changes to MCPHU and Drexel until 2004, when he became an adjunct member of the department. He has taught microscopic anatomy to medical students, and neurobiology and cell biology to PhD students from the 1990s to the present day. He is currently an associate professor in the department.

Dr. Baird was a full-time faculty member and administrator at Temple University from 2005 to 2015, most recently serving as an associate professor of biology and co-director of TUteach, a science and math teacher preparation program, in Temple’s College of Science & Technology. For several years, he was the assistant dean for science education and special projects, and he also served as accessibility liaison, Pre-health Evaluation Committee member, associate dean for graduate studies and coordinator of the graduate committee, and member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee – all in the College of Science & Technology.

Research Interests

Medical education in microanatomy and cell biology; active and remote learning; community-based learning; axon growth and guidance

Research

After earning his PhD, Dr. Baird served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University. He researched axonal growth and target neuron selection in the laboratory of C.A. Mason. At the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of Rockefeller University, he investigated the regulation of brain-specific genes during cerebellar development in the laboratory of N. Heintz.

He has received grant support for numerous studies in the field of neurobiology and anatomy. More recently, Dr. Baird's interests lie in the study of teaching and academics. In 2014 and 2015 he was the principal investigator for "TUteach: Serving Philadelphia By Preparing Better Science and Math Teachers, Phase 1 and 2," funded by the Verizon Foundation. He also served as PI for "Mobile Device Intiative for Step-2," a sub-award from the University of Texas, Austin. He was co-PI for "New Teacher Support Program: A Model for Retaining and Sustaining Early Career STEM Teachers," funded by the National Science Foundation (PI: Victor Donnay, Bryn Mawr College).

Presentations

Recent Abstracts Selected for Conference Presentations

"Thinking Outside the Classroom: How Community Engagement Prepares Future Teachers to Tutor, Mentor, and Support Informal and Formal Science and Math Education"
Baird, D., Berman, J., James, T
Annual UTeach Conference, abstract of papers presents at Austin, Texas, p. 16 Abstract (2014)

"Database/Web-Based Solutions for Inventory Management"
Baird, D., Fernandez, J. H., Imai, L, Shiba, R., Hance, J
Annual UTeach Conference, presented at Austin, Texas. P. 5 Abstract (2014)

"Thinking outside the classroom: how service learning prepares future teachers to tutor, mentor and support informal and formal science and math education"
Baird, D., Green, H., Berman, J., Wang, C.
NE Noyce Conference, Abstr. of papers presented at Philadelphia, Pa. p. 7 Abstract (2014)

"Strategies for Retaining Talented, New Teachers in Education"
Baird, D.
NE Noyce Conference, Abstr. of papers presented at Philadelphia, Pa. (2011)

Recent Invited Presentations

“Thinking outside the classroom: how service learning prepares future teachers to tutor, mentor and support informal and formal science and math education”
NE Noyce Conference, Philadelphia, Pa., 2014

“Database/Web-Based Solutions for Inventory Management”
“Thinking Outside the Classroom: How Community Engagement Prepares Future Teachers to Tutor, Mentor, and Support Informal and Formal Science and Math Education”
Annual UTeach Conference, Austin, Texas, May 2014


Contact Information


Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies
60 N. 36th Street
Health Sciences Bldg., Rm. 10W29
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 267.359.2408