AI Certified Futures Summit

Kristi Wellington-Baker

Amazon Web Services Higher Education Strategy Leader

Dr. Kristi Wellington Baker serves as the Amazon Web Services Higher Education Strategy leader overseeing the Student Lifecycle portfolio. She is focused on engaging higher education leaders to meet their mission and student success goals leveraging design thinking and purpose driven technology. She works with leaders to deepen student and community engagement, increase access to relevant learning pathways and experiences, and remove friction from administrative processes. She began her career in higher education twenty years ago and has served in various leadership roles in Student Affairs and education policy advocacy throughout her career. Her experience on campus included leadership of equity in access, persistence, and completion efforts resulting in significantly improved outcomes recognized by the Aspen Institute and Community College Research Center, and scaling Guided Pathways and related strategic initiatives across multiple institutions.  In addition to her campus experience, she completed the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellowship, authored research focused on equity in transfer, and consulted on issues of equitable outcomes across 2- and 4-year higher education institutions.  Prior to moving to AWS, she served as the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Director of Student Success and Strategic Initiatives, leading efforts to secure the largest legislative investment in community and technical colleges in the history of the state.