Rate My Professor Emma Baker

Professor Emma Baker is a Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide, serving as Director of the Australian Centre for Housing Research and Deputy Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Housing. She earned her PhD from the University of Adelaide between 1998 and 2002. Her research employs longitudinal, spatial, and administrative big data to investigate the human impacts of housing and location, with specializations in housing-health linkages, mental health effects of housing conditions, intergenerational inequality driven by housing, energy poverty including cold and mould in homes, and policy-relevant analyses. Baker has pioneered national research infrastructures, including the Australian Housing Conditions Data Infrastructure and the Australian Rental Conditions Data Infrastructure, enabling advanced studies on housing quality and rental conditions across Australia. Current projects encompass multi-nation comparisons of housing's role in inequality, mental health impacts of housing, and national assessments of cold homes.

Baker's career includes appointments as Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide since 2014, Program Director of the Master of Planning in 2019 and 2020, and teaching roles in Planning Theory and Practice from 2017 to 2019, Architecture and Planning Development Studio in 2016, and Geographic Information Systems in 2014. She is a member of the Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Reference Committee since 2014 and Program Director of the Stretton Institute's 'Ideas for Australian Cities'. Her accolades include the 2023 Research Impact Award from the University of Adelaide, 2016 and 2015 Executive Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Research, 2015 Berry Award for Excellence in Housing Research, 2014 Executive Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Research, 2006 Australian Housing Minister’s Early Career Researcher Award, and a 2011 nomination for the VicHealth Award. Key publications feature 'Housing disadvantage and poor mental health: a systematic review' (2019, American Journal of Preventive Medicine), 'Association between housing affordability and mental health: a longitudinal analysis of a nationally representative household survey in Australia' (2011, American Journal of Epidemiology), 'The impact of persistent poor housing conditions on mental health: A longitudinal population-based study' (2017, Preventive Medicine), 'An Australian rental housing conditions research infrastructure' (2022, Scientific Data), and 'Mental health and prolonged exposure to unaffordable housing: a longitudinal analysis' (2020, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology). Her contributions inform housing policy through AHURI reports on pandemic responses, precarious housing, and social housing pathways, demonstrating substantial academic and policy impact in addressing urban housing challenges.