![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/baker-jan15.jpg\")
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Dr. Lori Baker<\/a>, BA ’93, MA ’94, a Baylor alumna and assistant professor of anthropology, could have spent every day of 2014 teaching in her classroom, grading in her office, relaxing in her home, and nothing more. But she knew there was work to be done outside the university walls.<\/p>\n Instead, Baker used her free time in 2014 (and parts of\u00a011 years before it) traveling along the U.S.\/Mexico border to\u00a0identify the remains of undocumented immigrants. And for it, she was one of 10 finalists for the 2014 Dallas Morning News’<\/em> Texan of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n In one of two stories on Baker, the paper\u00a0called the Baylor alumna\u00a0a \u201cbig-hearted forensic sleuth and unsung Baylor Nation hero<\/a>,\u201d and it\u2019s clear why. From her very first case, Baker’s heart was broken\u00a0thinking of the families who had lost their loved ones. (As it turned out, those first remains were of\u00a0a 32-year-old mother of two; at the time, Baker was also in her early 30s\u00a0and pregnant.)<\/p>\n Since that day, Baker has been determined to do more for these forgotten people. In 2003, she founded the Reuniting Families Project<\/a> to establish a system for identifying the remains of undocumented immigrants. Through the program, she and a group of Baylor students<\/a> regularly travel along the border to exhume, identify and reunite bodies with their families.<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Dr. Baker!<\/p>\n For more on Baker and her work:<\/em><\/strong> Dr. Lori Baker, BA ’93, MA ’94, a Baylor alumna and assistant professor of anthropology, could have spent every day of 2014 teaching in her classroom, grading in her office, relaxing in her home, and nothing more. But she knew there was work to be done outside the university walls. Instead, Baker used her free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-honors","category-research","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n* Spotlight falls on Baylor prof\u2019s work identifying remains in South Texas<\/a> (June 2014)<\/em>
\n* ABC, CBS news highlight Baylor prof\u2019s work to give migrant families closure<\/a> (July 2013)<\/em>
\n* Forensics prof uses skills to bring closure to migrant families missing loved ones<\/a> (Feb. 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"