Q&A: Carolyn Baker
Written by Diana McGonigle
Carolyn Baker
Chief of Continuing Education, Department of Defense
Chair, Interservice Voluntary Education Steering Committee
Carolyn Baker, a native of Pasco, Wash., earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii in 1972, and her master’s degree from Troy State University, Ala., in 1980. She currently works in the Educational Opportunities Office of the undersecretary of defense for Personnel and Readiness as the chief of DoD Continuing Education Programs.
Her first job in the government was as a clerk with Military Welfare and Recreation, Sports Division in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Upon graduation from the Army Intern Program at Fort Meade after 1982, she worked as a guidance counselor in the education center. Following several years as a guidance counselor, she was accepted into an intern program at the staffing level with the Personnel Command in Alexandria, Va. Upon graduation, she worked in the Education Division on the development and implementation of policies and programs for the Army Continuing Education System (ACES). She then went on to become the MACOM Director of Education for the Army Material Command (AMC) where she formulated and developed military and civilian policy, program implementation procedures, and guidance for education and training. In addition, she was responsible for the education programs and the operational oversight of 12 AMC Army installation education centers. When the Installation Management Agency (IMA) stood up on October 1, 2002, she was transferred to the Northeast Region and detailed to work at IMA in Arlington, Va. She later competed and was selected to be ACES branch chief in the human resource division of the IMA. At IMA she had the oversight of the operation and management of all Army education throughout the world.
Carolyn Baker was interviewed by MAE editorial coordinator Diana McGonigle.
Q: What is your role as Chief of Continuing Education?
A: I serve as the program manager and expert for all voluntary education planning, direction and control of all adult, non-traditional, voluntary, continuing and higher education programs within the Department of Defense.
I assist the Department in establishing policies governing the management of adult education programs for military personnel and expanded education opportunities for military spouses. Voluntary education is primarily focused on service personnel and their adult family members who are voluntarily pursuing their postsecondary education.
Q: When did you become the chief?
A: December 2004.
Q: What is your role as the Interservice Voluntary Education Steering Committee Chair?
A: The chair brings all the services [Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Reserve Component and the Coast Guard] together to work jointly on Vol. Ed. issues. As the chair, I provide the oversight of the operation of voluntary education programs. I do not develop policies or make changes to the program without coordinating prospective changes with the services.
Also, the chair:
• Identifies policy issues that pertain to all services and reviews the policies to determine if modifications are required. An example is implementation of or change to the Uniform Tuition Assistance Policy.
• Coordinates the service’s actions and activities that affect the overall success of the DoD Vol. Ed. program.
• Coordinates policy development for Vol. Ed. programs across the military services—Our Voluntary Education Directives, the new Language TA policy.
Ensures members of the Vol. Ed. community are provided the opportunity to interact with and receive updates about new departmental policies or issues that may affect the services’ education programs.
• Collects data to support requirements and program accountability.
Q: How has your own educational background contributed to your role as a leader within the both the field of national defense and education?
A: I am a product of the military voluntary education programs. I was raised in a military environment. My father was in the military and was an education services specialist with the Army. Due to my father’s career, when growing up, I lived in three different states and two countries, on numerous military installations, attended eight schools prior to graduating from high school. Upon completion of high school, I attended evening college classes through military education centers in Heilbronn and Stuttgart, Germany and received my associate’s degree from University of Maryland, Munich Campus. I went on to attend evening classes at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, with Chaminade University of Honolulu and received my bachelors degree from the University of Hawaii. Later, I lived on the installation at Fort Rucker, Ala., and attended Troy State University [now Troy University] evening program where I earned my master’s degree in guidance and counseling.
I started my career in the Army Internship program and was fortunate to receive two voluntary education internships, one at the installation level with the target goal of becoming a guidance counselor in an education center. The second internship provided the training and expertise for a more global positions working policy, resource requirements and program analyses.
Prior to my current position, I held positions as a guidance counselor, as a program manager at the Education Division for the Army Continuing Education System [ACES], as the Major Command Director of Education for the Army Material Command, and then as the ACES branch chief for the Human Resources Division, for the Army’s Installation Management Agency [IMA].
Q: Are servicemembers making full use of tuition assistance [TA] and other benefits?
A: Historically, about one third of the military population attends postsecondary institutions using TA. And on average, those that are participating are taking approximately two courses per year.
Q: What can you tell me about the Military Severely Injured Center?
A: The Department of Defense is committed to providing the assistance and support required to meet the challenges that confront our severely injured and wounded servicemembers and their families during the difficult time of transition. Each military service has programs to serve their severely wounded from the war: the Army wounded Warrior Program (AW2), the Navy SAFE HARBOR program, the Air Force Helping Airmen Recover Together (Palace HART) program, and the Marine4Life Injured Support Program. DoD’s Military Severely Injured Center is part of this effort to augment the support provided by the Services. It reaches beyond the DoD to other agencies, the nonprofit world and corporate America. What makes the Center unique is that it serves as a fusion point of four federal agencies—DoD, the VA, the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Labor.
For more information or for contact information for any of the Military Service severely injured programs, I recommend that you contact CDR David Julian, Director of the DoD Severely Injured Center, at 703-614-3330 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Q: What is the Joint Voluntary Education Initiative?
A: On September 21, 2005, the deputy undersecretary of defense for Military Community and Family Policy established a Joint Service Voluntary Education Committee to review multi-service education programs and services. I chaired the committee. The committee’s charter was to identify cost savings and efficiencies and to recommend joint and multi-service education services and centers of excellence for future implementation.
The Joint Service Committee met during fiscal year 2006 and reviewed duplicative and similar voluntary education efforts. The committee identified five areas for potential consolidation: credentialing opportunities, in-state tuition eligibility, deploying joint voluntary education centers downrange, voluntary education website resource management and standardization of academic institutions’ memorandums of agreement. In the near future, the department will be working these issues.
Q: Can you tell us something about the decline in enrollments between 2003 and 2005?
A: The decline in enrollments is due to some extent to the high deployment tempo. Although we have seen somewhat of a decline in enrollments, we have however seen an increase in distance learning enrollments over traditional classroom instruction. Remember this is a voluntary program. Servicemembers enroll when they feel they can successfully complete a course and have the time to devote to their studies. I am sure when the deployment tempo declines, we will see an increase in enrollments.
Q: Are there any differences in servicemember’s pursuit of higher education depending upon their demographics?
A: We do not keep statistics on demographics. We do track the number of enlisted and officers by service that participate and continue their education. Our annual reports are posted on the Voluntary Education Web page [http://www.voled.doded.mil]. [Click on the DoD button, a menu will drop down and then click on Reports.]
Q: What other trends in military education do you see arising? What accounts for these trends?
A: First, an increase in language courses. The Quadrennial Defense Review [February 2006] and the FY 2008-2013 Strategic Planning Guidance directed the Department to increase foreign language proficiency within the force. Further, this issue directly supports the President’s National Security Language Initiative to increase training and learning opportunities that lead to proficiency in critical-need foreign languages through new and expanded programs beginning in early childhood and continuing throughout formal schooling and into the workforce. The Department modified the Uniform Tuition Assistance Policy to allow servicemembers to use TA for non-degree-oriented foreign language education during the member’s off-duty time. This change in the policy provides funds and allows the servicemember to become proficient in a foreign language. The new foreign language skills will allow them to work effectively outside our country’s borders in languages and cultures that are critical to our nation’s defense.
Second, an increase in courses leading to certification and licensure. With the change in Section 2015 of title 10 U.S.C., DoD is permitted to spend discretionary money for credentialing. The credentialing is defined as a set of standards that link the skill or knowledge to the civilian job sector. While credentialing facilitates skill continuity, knowledge currency and portability, it also expands professionalism and ensures rigorous adherence to standards through renewals and professional memberships. It is the DoD policy that the military departments may pay for credentialing of military members if these certifications are required for the member to perform the preponderance of their assigned duties. Military departments may also pay for course work in preparation for a certification or license. Courses are those that are part of an identified course of study leading to a certificate or license. Once the servicemember has obtained the required certification or license, the military department may pay for the fees required for renewal of the certification or license.
Q: Can you tell me anything about the DoD Distance Learning Task Force?
A: Due to higher education distance learning growth averaging over 30 percent each year, and with the increase of military members taking online courses, accounting for approximately 50 percent of our overall enrollments, a task force was appointed by the director, DoD Educational Opportunities, of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy. The task force was chartered to review existing DL criteria and develop recommended DoD DL criteria that would ensure that distance higher education courses and programs for servicemembers, their families and the DoD education community are of high quality and are readily accessible.
The principles are founded on best practices in distance higher education and are tailored to the unique needs of the military community. The proposed principles define parameters of excellence; enhance the legitimacy and worth of distance education; and foster dialogue to strengthen and improve the quality of the programs and services offered by provider institutions. The principles contribute to the continuous improvement of the military voluntary education program by helping to establish benchmarks of quality.
We will be incorporating some of the principles into DoD Memorandums of Agreement [Understanding] with institutions providing DL course work to the servicemembers.
Q: How do you compare or relate online coursework to the more traditional forms of study?
A: Servicemembers are extremely mobile, deployed more than they have ever been and for longer periods of time. Without DL opportunities for servicemembers to pursue their college education, the possibility for them to continue their education would be limited or non-existent. I view DL as extended campuses, extended learning or methods of instructional delivery not confined to the classroom. When I started in voluntary education in the ’80s, DL was paper-based, with some courses being provided via video tapes or delivered on the local education channel by the community college. Due to innovative technological advances, institutions have made dynamic changes to methods of course delivery, content design, not to mention the quality of their instruction and how they interact with their students.
I do believe that DL is not for all students. Many students prefer and do better in the traditional classroom setting. Others enjoy blended learning, some traditional and some DL instruction. We need to continue our traditional delivery along with DL, to allow the student to make the correct choice for their learning style.
Q: What are the biggest challenges you see in the future of military education?
A: Working jointly. Resources are not what they were 10-15 years ago. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure [BRAC] report recommends joint and multi-service basing. The voluntary education community is looking at ways to optimize resources, establish economies of scale and support all servicemembers where they are co-located.
Q: What are your goals for military education?
A: First, to provide the highest quality educational opportunities possible for our military personnel and eligible family members no matter where they are serving the nation throughout the world.
Second, to ensure that servicemembers have the opportunity to attend a nationally- or regionally-accredited postsecondary education institution of their choice so that they have an opportunity to achieve their personal education goals. And that the institutions they attend minimize the loss of credit transfer, accept non-traditional credit and award credit for military training and experience.
Third, to ensure that funding is available for interested servicemembers to pursue their educational goals. ♦