Marlene Baker spent the first 25 years of her career in senior management positions in marketing and communications. After 12 years with Marriott International where she traveled and lived in different locations while managing hotel properties, Marlene served as media services director for MediaWorks—a full-service media production and communications agency. While at MediaWorks, Marlene developed marketing, communications, and fundraising campaigns for more than 130 nonprofit clients of all kinds—which is how she was introduced to AFS-USA.
While Marlene wishes she was given the opportunity to study abroad, AFS has certainly changed her life and the lives of her two children. After hosting Linnea, an AFS Exchange Student from Sweden, both children decided to study abroad—her son is an AFS Returnee (U.S. to Japan), and her daughter studied for a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing, followed by a Fulbright year in Taiwan.
Marlene and her partner Richard live in Guilford, Connecticut with a very pampered Boston Terrier, Lily.
