Regina S. Baker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Baker’s research seeks to understand the factors that shape socioeconomic conditions and disparities in well-being across people, places, and time. She is especially interested in the role of institutional mechanisms in shaping individual outcomes and broader patterns of poverty and social inequality. Her recent and ongoing research focuses on child poverty and poverty risks, socioeconomic racial/ethnic disparities, the link between historical racism and contemporary conditions, and the politics of power (e.g., via unions, policies) in the distribution of resources and economic and health outcomes. As a native Southerner, some of Baker’s work focuses attention to the U.S. South and regional disparities.
