Alice Chaiten Baker

Alice Chaiten Baker is a devoted philanthropist and community leader who has spent her life working to enrich the arts, culture, and education at the University of Arizona and in Tucson. Baker was raised in Tucson and graduated from the university, becoming the first of three generations of Wildcats.

Baker's contributions have profoundly shaped the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, particularly the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. Alice, alongside her husband Paul, has helped establish the center from what once was the college's Committee on Judaic Studies, with aim to help it become the state's preeminent center for the study of Jewish life and history. The university is now home to one of the most vibrant Hebrew and Judaic studies programs in the country and serves the Tucson community with public education and outreach.

The Bakers' generosity also includes the endowment of the J. Edward Wright Endowed Chair and the Edwin and Alma Lakin Holocaust, Human Rights, and Comparative Genocide Chair, as well as funding for two major conferences and a visiting professorship in Modern Israel Studies. This support has strengthened faculty leadership, expanded research and teaching capacity, and enhanced the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies' global profile within the social sciences and humanities.

The Bakers' philanthropy and leadership extend well across campus and into the Tucson community. The Bakers supported Arizona Public Media's new building, which bears their name, and the Center for Creative Photography's Alice Chaiten Baker Gallery stands as a lasting testament to their passion for the arts – and Alice's love of photography. The Tucson Museum of Art named its Alice Chaiten Baker Center for Art Education in recognition of Baker's leadership on the museum's board.