Think back to your favorite teacher in high school or college. Most will say that those instructors—no matter what subject they taught—had a long-term impact on students, not only because of the information they imparted, but because of the possibilities they opened our eyes to see that we hadn’t fully considered before.

Kent Baker, who stepped down in September, 2025, as an instructor of TRSA’s Executive Management Institute (EMI) since 1976, was that kind of teacher, according to students and EMI faculty colleagues we contacted. “I first attended EMI back in 2002, and looking back now, I can ...