The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System District announces that WTOC news anchor Dawn Baker will speak on Thursday, October 29 at Savannah High School, in its inaugural Passport to Excellence Lecture Series.

Any Savannahian with a television set will recognize Baker as the bubbly lady who delivers two newscasts each weekday on WTOC TV. She has been at the station for the past 26 years, so there will be some who don’t remember a time when she wasn’t a fixture in local news. But what her audience may not know is that the award-winning news anchor was educated in Savannah-Chatham County public schools.

“I remember my English class at the old Savannah High School with those diagrammed sentences going all the way across those three-tiered blackboards,” Baker reminisced in a recent interview. “I didn’t realize at the time how much it would improve my writing skills, but it really did.”

Baker will be the second speaker in the SCCPSS Passport to Excellence Lecture Series on Thursday, October 29, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at her alma mater, Savannah High School, now located at 400 Pennsylvania Avenue. The series is made up of three lectures featuring presentations from accomplished individuals who previously attended or graduated from SCCPSS, sharing their unique career journeys and the insights they have learned about success and how to achieve it.

The Riceboro, GA native moved to Savannah when she was in the eighth grade. After graduating with honors from SHS, Baker went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C., then worked in Wilmington, N.C. as a reporter before returning home to Savannah in 1989 to join the WTOC team as a reporter. She now co-anchors The News at 5:30 and THE News at 11:00. Baker is also the author of “Dawn’s Daughter: Everything A Woman Needs To Know.”

“I believe as good citizens, all of us should look for opportunities to partner with the schools,” Baker added. “The Passport to Excellence program is unique. I believe it’s the first time the school system is showcasing people as living examples of what the students can become if they get a good education and set their goals high.”

Movie producer Stratton Leopold was the first presenter in the series on August 27 at Savannah Arts Academy. Baker is the second lecturer in the series, and Howard Morrison will be the final presenter in this 2015-2016 series. Morrison will speak on Thursday, January 21, 2016, at Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School.

The presentations are free and open to the public, but reservations are required to attend. To RSVP, please contact Cynthia Wright at [email protected] or 912.856.9075.