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Melissa Baker, an assistant professor in Isenberg’s Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, is recipient of a 2018-19 Lilly Fellowship. The nationally competitive fellowships foster teaching excellence through pedagogy workshops and seminars, course development and redesign, third-party assessment of teaching skills, and other resources. The Institute for Teaching Excellence & Development has awarded the fellowships since 1986.

In 2016, Isenberg honored Professor Baker with its own College Outstanding Teacher Award. Her teaching interests include service management, food and beverage management, and human resources management. Her research, which investigates service failure and recovery, appearance impression formation, and other topics, has appeared in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, and other leading scholarly publications. Professor Baker earned her PhD and MBA degrees from Virginia Tech and her BS degree from Cornell. All of her degrees are in Hospitality Management.

“In Hospitality Management, we teach, coach, train, and develop more people than in any other profession,” Professor Baker observes. “I chose this career to make the most positive, significant impact on the lives of students, the university, and industry. Delivering excellent hospitality service is incredibly challenging. . . It requires significant student interaction, storytelling, and critical thinking in the classroom, through assignments, and in practice.”