The world from
Blue Cypress seems manageable, simple,
a microcosm one can understand. Far
away from war, terrorism, violence
against women,child abuse, pettiness
and passions.
— From Reflections
of Blue Cypress by Richard and Juanita
Baker |
The Family Learning Program (FLP) not only helps families of sexually abused
children, it’s a training ground for students. The State of Florida contract
funds doctoral students to provide the psychological services while being supervised
by licensed psychologists.
Because of its university association,
the program trains Florida Tech’s
clinical psychology doctoral students
as they help 30 new children and
their families every year. Over 100
doctoral graduates have gained valuable
experience and credits toward their
degrees through the program so far.
The database, now containing over
600 client records, has stimulated
students in their research, which
is a valuable outcome of the program.
“We know from research that
between 20 and 30 percent of women,
and 10 to 15 percent of men are sexually
abused before the age of 18,” said
Baker. “With numbers that high,
it’s important for clinical
psychologists to have experience
with these issues. We want to stop
the cycle of abuse.”
www.fit.edu/flp. |
A passion to make the world a
better place is what drives Dr. Juanita
Baker. In her small office crammed
with packed bookshelves, the associate
professor of psychology talks about
the causes she champions. Paintings
and colorful fabric art gathered through
years of world travel decorate her
workspace, an area as tightly filled
as a New York City studio apartment.
Baker smiles fre-quently as her conversation
flows to
convey the
difficulty of her work. The upbeat
look softens the harsh montage she
paints
of her main mission at Florida Tech—creating
a better world one shattered family
at a time.
 In 1990, Dr. Frank Webbe,
then School
of Psychology dean, alerted Baker
to an opportunity to found a treatment
program for sexually abused children
and their
families. Today, the Family Learning
Program is in its 14th year under
her
guidance.
Perhaps not coincidentally,
also in 1990, she and her husband,
Richard, found a
peaceful escape in canoeing and
camping at unspoiled Blue Cypress Lake,
located
in Indian River County, about 30
minutes
south of the university. The nature
retreat is the subject of a book
she co-authored
with Richard. Baker writes, “It
gives me needed perspective, enabling
the return to battle.”
Art,
nature and books have always
figured prominently for Baker,
who, as a child,
enjoyed nothing more than sports,
climbing trees and building forts.
Her father
was a professor of electrical
engineering and her mother an
avid reader and weaver.
She credits
the university with openness to her
creativity. “Florida
Tech lets me do my thing.”
Her “thing” includes
advocacy for education, libraries,
funding for
students and the university’s
needs, and the environment.
Although soft-spoken, Baker
describes the causes she
embraces with
determination. Her resolve
takes shape in her
record of accomplishments.
As an undergraduate at the University
of Illinois,
she
spent her junior
year abroad studying
at Isabella Thoburn
College in Lucknow, India.
After that experience,
she said, “I began
to fully realize the
pain of the world.” The
day after completing
her bachelor’s
degree there 42 years
ago, she married Richard
Baker.
Life partner,
Richard,
is retired director
of the Florida
Medical
Entomology Laboratory
in Vero
Beach, Fla.
After both
had finished graduate school, they
took positions
in Lahore, Pakistan,
where they lived
for 13 years. Richard led
a mosquito
control
project and
Juanita taught basic
psychology at an
all-male Christian college and
started
a clinic.
In Lahore,
she conducted a successful campaign
to build
the area’s
first children’s
library from scratch.
Supporting the
project with a
$3,000 inheritance,
she founded the
facility
in a converted
double-decker bus,
which
remains today,
in a proper building.
Along
the way the
Bakers had two
daughters. Today,
one is
a gynecologist
and the
other is a poet.
Baker
started the Friends of
the
Library at
Florida Tech
in 1993,
when there
was no budget
for book purchases.
Greatly
enriching the
holdings
of Evans Library,
the “Friends” has
created an
endowment that
has grown
to $96,000.
In
2002, Baker
successfully
raised funds
to bring
a 1,600-volume
collection
of diverse
women’s
studies books
to Evans
Library.
A subsequent
effort, capped
by a textile
art exhibit
she helped
mount,
raised funds
to support
the Juanita
Beal-Baker
Graduate
Fellowship
for research
on reducing
violence
toward
women and
children.
Three
research
fellowships
have already
come from
this effort.
In
2003,
the environmentalist
couple pooled
their talents
to create
Reflections
of Blue Cypress.
The Pelican
Island
Audubon Society
published
the
stunning
photo essay
and history,
which continues
to sell briskly
in their
Vero
Beach home
town.
“I love to go out into nature,
where life seems a little more perfect,” reflects
Baker. “While
we’re
trying to
make this
a better
world, the
lake
is a peaceful
world for
us.”
Karen
Rhine
|
