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Darlington Connects: Charlotte Baker (’02)

Vicki Vincent | November 5, 2020 | 319 views

We're excited to connect with our alumni through our Darlington Connects series. Today we hear from Charlotte Baker (’02), an assistant professor of epidemiology at Virginia Tech.

While at Darlington, Charlotte Baker thought she wanted to be an athletic trainer after college. “I took every opportunity to talk with the coaches and trainers," she said. "I asked questions and they helped me as an athlete and really encouraged me to pursue my dream in college athletics at Appalachian State."

A different path was ahead, however, and while studying at Appalachian State, Charlotte took a class in epidemiology. Immediately she was hooked and she never looked back! She came to the conclusion that she could help a lot more people than she ever could as either a doctor or trainer.

Today, Charlotte serves as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Virginia Tech. Her primary interests are injury prevention and control (particularly sports injuries) and physical activity. She also is extremely interested in working with rural and diverse populations and populations of low socioeconomic status. Her current position at Virginia Tech allows her to work with not only the athletic trainers and coaches at an NCAA Division I program, but also with children and volunteer coaches at her local recreation center. The topics of social issues and the impact those issues have on resources for athletes are a primary focus of Charlotte’s current research.

Charlotte says the capstone of work for her doctoral program in public health at the University of Kentucky was "what gets athletes back on the field faster." One interesting aspect of her work was a study of male and female soccer players and their injury recovery times. She found that access to medical treatment was the driving force in getting the male players back on the field. However, for the females, it was their support network and the relationships with their friends and teammates that played a significant role in their recovery.  

“I knew I wanted to work with people and sports,” Charlotte said. At Darlington, her AP Statistics teacher, Bob McGraw, “was a very cool teacher who made you really interested in statistics.” Little did she know at the time she would be using what he taught her every day in her career and interacting daily with people and all types of sports. 

Currently, the impact of COVID-19 has shifted the focus of everyone in the field of public health and Charlotte has been called upon to interpret the local data in her area of Virginia. Infectious diseases are not a new area for Charlotte, as she spent eight years working for the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta prior to earning her doctorate.  

“I have done far more media interviews in the last several months than I’ve ever been asked to do before,” she said. 

Charlotte is happy to be a part of the Darlington Connects program and she’s willing to offer advice to anyone interested in a career in epidemiology or academia.   

Are you a Darlington alum (or do you know one) with an interesting career or community involvement? We'd love to spotlight you in a future blog! Please email connect@darlingtonschool.org if you are interested in being featured.