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Meet the Buffkin/Baker Officials Leading the Turner College's Search for a New Dean

The biggest buzz around the Turner College at the moment involves its search for a new dean. That search is being management by Buffkin/Baker, a firm that specializes in executive searches for public and private organizations. Heading up the Turner College's search from Buffkin/Baker is Martin Baker, a Managing Partner with the firm and its Head of Higher Education Practice. Baker has been in the executive search profession for 25 years and is based in Buffkin/Baker's Winston-Salem, North Carolina, office. Baker has conducted searches for the positions of Chancellor/President, Provost, CFO, CIO, Vice President, Dean, Director, and Professor, having worked on over 375 searches throughout his career. He has recently represented a number of AAU institutions, land-grant universities, faith-based institutions, liberal arts colleges, and regional universities, where he has led searches spanning most functions and academic disciplines. Baker currently serves on the Parents’ Council at Wake Forest University and on the Board of Directors of Old Town Club. He previously served on the Board of Directors of SciWorks (The Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County in Winston-Salem), both the Alumni Council and the regional selection committee for the Presidential Scholarship at Wake Forest, and the Development Committee for the Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem. He recently served on the Athletics Advisory Council at Wake Forest. Baker previously worked in the Atlanta office of Korn Ferry, where he developed search strategy and executed searches for numerous senior level appointments. He began his career working in London, England as a Research Associate with Saxton Bampfylde, an executive search and management assessment firm. Baker earned his bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University.
Assisting Baker in the task of finding the next Dean of the Turner College is Dinah DeWitt. DeWitt, who joined Buffkin/Baker in 2023 and serves as an Associate with the Higher Education Practice. Her passion for higher education and recruiting was formed during her time at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, where she served as a member of the Admissions and Career Management Center teams, as well as a Campus Recruiter for the Master of Accountancy program. After eight years at Vanderbilt, she continued to enhance her recruiting skillset at Ernst & Young as the Talent Management Recruiter for accounting profiles in the Southeast region within Campus Recruiting. DeWitt, who is based in Buffkin/Baker's Washington, D.C., office, earned her degree in Spanish from Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee. 

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