Meet the Director
Dr. Paul K. Baker serves as the interim director of the Center of Excellence for Social Justice at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. As a professor of history in the Department of History and Political Science, he teaches African American history and museum studies. His work bridges scholarship, leadership, and cultural engagement—advancing conversations around equity, representation, and public access.
Dr. Baker’s research explores African American leadership, public history, and museum studies. His publication, Foundations in Museum Accessibility: Two Events in Art History That Championed, funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the American Alliance of Museums, examines social justice movements within museums and the long-overlooked inclusion of artists and exhibitions.
As a contributing writer for Walter Magazine, Dr. Baker received the North Carolina Press Association’s second-place journalism award for arts reporting for his article When Painting is a Practice, a feature on artist and activist Lamar Whidbee.
He has led both academic and regional museums, developing and curating more than 50 art and artifact exhibitions. At North Carolina A&T, he secured the highest valued art acquisition in the University’s history—a donation of works by Bryan Collier and Curtis James valued at $320,000, now part of the permanent art collection. In 2023, he served as juror for the North Carolina Artists Exhibition, the state’s largest juried art show with more than 1,100 submissions. He is also a member of the Ford Foundation’s Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums.
His commitment to service extends across the arts community. In 2024, he was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the North Carolina Arts Council's Board of Directors. He has also served on the boards of the Zebulon Downtown Arts Council, Raleigh City Museum, South Carolina African American Heritage Commission, and the Associates Board of Directors for the North Carolina Museum of History. Additionally, he has reviewed assessments for the National Endowment for the Humanities, evaluating museums and historical sites across the nation.
Dr. Baker earned his B.A. in art and African American studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in public history from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in leadership studies from the School of Education at North Carolina A&T. He has been recognized as a Gilder Lehrman Fellow at Yale University, a Ford Fellow at the University of Virginia, and an Oxford Roundtable Fellow at Oxford University. He also completed Harvard University’s Management Development Program and Cornell University’s Program in Policy Development.
