Directory Profile

Alan Baker joined USC in 1998, and since 2009, he has served as the Associate Dean, Administration & International Projects at SCA where he is responsible for developing new and overseeing current international programs.

Since 2011, Baker has been a co-Principal Investigator of American Film Showcase (AFS), a multiyear grant from the U.S. Department of State that sends American filmmakers and documentaries to countries throughout the world for workshops, festivals, and special programs.  During 2015-2016, AFS traveled to 35 countries, and in 2016-2017, it will visit 40 countries.  Baker has accompanied filmmakers to Russia, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Kazakhstan, and numerous others. 

In 2015 and 2016, Baker completed multi-year consulting and workshop agreements with ShanghaiTech University and the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, and he has overseen several workshops for both educational institutions in Shanghai, Beijing and at USC. 

In addition to the Chinese programs, SCA has had a five-year agreement in Malaysia with Multimedia University’s Faculty of Cinematic Arts program.  SCA has produced short workshops in writing, production, cinematography and editing, in addition to conducting external reviews of their overall cinema program. 

Over the past several years, Baker and SCA have also worked closely with a new university in Ankara, Turkey, the American University in Dubai, and a women’s university in Saudi Arabia 

Between 2007-2009, Baker was the Principal Investigator for the U.S. State Department’s Fusion Arts Exchange program that brought international and American university students to USC for six weeks of intensive writing and production classes taught by SCA faculty. 

In 2005, Baker organized the first of a series of summer production workshops in Amman, Jordan for aspiring filmmakers.  He was also involved in the initial development of Jordan’s Red Seat Institute of Cinematic Arts. 

Between 2005-2009, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation and Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Baker supervised several workshops for Vietnamese filmmakers at USC and in Hanoi. 

For the past 18 years Baker has also been the principal SCA liaison with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film School program which awards annual competitive grants in screenwriting, production and animation to SCA majors.

Prior to coming to USC, Baker worked for more than 25 years in television programming and production, as Vice-President of Programming at 20^th Century Fox Television and earlier at Paramount Television.  Baker spent the first seven years of his television career at the Los Angeles Public Broadcasting station where he produced more than 200 cultural, documentary, and public affairs programs.

Between 1982 and 1984, Baker joined the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and the 1984 Olympic Games where he managed all publicity and press for the 10-week international Olympic Arts Festival. 

Baker is married to prominent children’s book author and co-founder of the 25,000 member Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  He has three grown sons, two very young granddaughters, and one badly behaved dog.