Bette Ann Baker, JD, MSN is a nurse and attorney. Originally from New England, she received her bachelor’s degree in English and Nursing from Simmons University. Bette Ann then worked in rural Eastern Kentucky running a home health agency. She later served as head nurse in an inner-urban hospital in Louisville before getting her MSN at the University of Rochester.
As a nurse and nurse practitioner, she taught in the BSN program at the University of Texas and was co-editor of the Nursing Text, “Health Assessment Across the Life Span.” She spent six months teaching nursing in Guatemala as a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO). She then attended the University of Texas School of Law and moved to Los Angeles after graduation.
Bette Ann practiced law for 35 years, specializing in health care regulatory issues; she represented health care companies and later represented employers in civil litigation and workers' compensation cases. She was Chair of the Los Angeles County Bioethics Committee for two years and served as a temporary judge in LA County for many years.
She currently lives in Long Beach and has two grown children.
