Dr. Vic Baker.

CHAMPS® is the product of two careers running in parallel. One in the field, building and operating real systems across aviation, energy, engineering, and executive leadership. One in the academy, taking the patterns observed in those engagements and pressure-testing them against the literature on adult learning, organizational behavior, and the neuroscience of how people change under load.

Every credential Dr. Baker holds is on that line. The engineering degree trained the habit of treating an organization as a system with inputs, throughput, and failure modes. The MBA from San Diego State University put the operating, financial, and strategic discipline around it. The Doctor of Education in Organization and Leadership from the University of San Francisco closed the loop by anchoring the practice in the research on how leaders, teams, and cultures actually shift.

CHAMPS® sits at that intersection on purpose. The framework merges hands-on practitioner experience with neuroscience research on how the brain processes belonging, threat, autonomy, and feedback inside a working organization. It is not a philosophy. It is an operating standard, written by someone who has done the work and studied the work, and who is unwilling to choose between the two.

Today Dr. Baker leads the EquitiFy practice. He works directly with senior teams to install the CHAMPS® standard, mentor leaders, and translate the research into operating reality. He is a guest lecturer at the University of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley, where he continues to test the framework against the next generation of leaders.