Hall of Fame
An All-American on the basketball court and an Academic All-American in the classroom, Dr. Lindsay Baker proved to be an all-around standout talent during her time at Pitt-Johnstown from 1997 through 2002.
After red-shirting due to an injury early on in her freshman season, Dr. Baker got back on the court in 1998-99 and began to make her mark on Head Coach Jodi Gault’s nationally-renowned Lady Cat basketball program by becoming a four-year letter-winner and a two-year team captain.
As a red-shirt freshman, the Saxton, Pa. native helped guide Pitt-Johnstown to a 22-6 record, the top spot in the NCAA East Region Rankings, and a berth in the Division II National Tournament, before helping the team to its 18th consecutive winning season a year later.
In 2000-01, Pitt-Johnstown reached the NCAA East Regional Tournament Semifinals with a 25-4 overall record, and Dr. Baker, the recipient of the 2000 Lowell Shaffer Student-Athlete Award, was the team’s starting point guard and one of five Lady Cats who averaged nine points per game or better at 9.2 points per game.
With her career already off and running, Dr. Baker made her final season in 2001-02 one to remember by averaging 20.9 points per game and garnering Second-Team Daktronics All-America honors, and being named an Honorable Mention All-American by both Kodak and Division II Bulletin. She led all of NCAA Division II in 3-point field goal percentage at 47.9% (68-142), and ranked eighth nationally in free-throw percentage (86.8%, 99-114), 12th in scoring, and tied for 20th in three-point field goals per game (2.5).
That same year, Dr. Baker, a Second-Team Verizon Academic All-American, earned the Pitt-Johnstown Scholar-Athlete Award, and received an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship after graduating with a 3.83 overall GPA in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Geology.
Dr. Baker closed out her stellar career with 973 points. She still holds the Lady Cat single-season three-point field goal percentage record and her 89.2% free-throw percentage in 2000-01 ranks third on Pitt-Johnstown’s all-time list.
Dr. Baker, who received her Doctorate in Kinesiology with a focus in Exercise Physiology from Penn State in 2008, moved to the Chicago area the previous year to work at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), a division of PepsiCo Research & Development, a company she has been with for the last 17 years.
She currently serves as the Director of the GSSI Clinical Research Headquarters in Valhalla NY, where they conduct sports hydration and nutrition studies with the mission of helping athletes optimize their health and performance. This research has led to a number of new commercial hydration products as well as technology innovations, including Gatorade’s Gx Sweat Patch and Smart Bottle.
An active member and Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Dr. Baker serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI), whose mission is to optimize athlete safety. She has authored over 60 scientific publications in sports hydration and nutrition, including peer-reviewed manuscripts, invited reviews, and book chapters. Dr. Baker was recently featured on the CBS Mornings Show–Football Fridays segment where she did an interview with host Nate Burleson and took him through a series of exercise tests at the GSSI lab in NY.
Dr. Baker, her husband Shannon Dolte, and their children Autumn, Elias, and Laurel reside in Carmel, NY.
“I am deeply honored to be inducted into the Pitt-Johnstown Athletics Hall of Fame, especially considering the strong tradition and long-standing success of its programs,” Dr. Baker said. “Playing for the Lady Cat Women’s Basketball program was a dream come true; and more importantly the experiences gained, and lessons learned helped prepare me for life after basketball and shape me into the person I am today. For that I am forever grateful to the university, my coaches, and teammates.”
