The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of the Advertiser or of Inside Reproductive Health.
BY: ANDREA TIMPANO
The phone rings.
It happens all the time when Dr. Michael Baker makes his way home from Aspire Fertility San Antonio—the Texas IVF lab he runs as onsite director. On the other line? A struggling embryologist in need of a little help. “I probably get a call from somebody at least once a week,” Baker says, noting he hears from professionals based around the country. “I’m driving home at the end of my day, just chatting somebody through whatever they’re working with.”
While some higher-ups might find the after-hours calls irksome, Baker welcomes the opportunity to mentor colleagues. Though he’s technically still in the early stages of his own career, the Texas native has some wisdom to impart: At 38 years old, Baker is one of the youngest IVF lab directors in the field, having first assumed the role at a facility in Colorado at the ripe age of 33. For Baker, building strong teams and ensuring patients get top-notch care on their path to parenthood is nothing short of a dream job—one he’d love to help others excel in. “I just want to see everybody be successful because we need to retain the embryologists in our field,” he says. “The numbers aren't going down; we're going to be taking care of 10 times as many patients in the future, and we need strong embryologists to accomplish that.”
“The numbers aren't going down; we're going to be taking care of 10 times as many patients in the future, and we need strong embryologists to accomplish that.”
What Dr. Baker says about working at Prelude
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Alongside experts like Dr. Michael Baker, you’ll experience:
Clear Career Pathways: Robust career ladder and growth opportunities
Continuous Education: Structured training and professional development
Collaborative Environment: Be part of a supportive, innovation-driven team
Work-Life Balance: Focus on well-being and long-term career satisfaction
Patient-Centered Excellence: Drive change with best-in-class practices
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Embryologist to Lab Supervisor to Lab Director
“I like to say that I’ve had three very different seasons to my career in the last 10 years. As an embryologist, you come to work every day and learn how to make beautiful embryos. And then as a supervisor, you're really working to make beautiful embryologists,” Baker says with a laugh. “Getting to the director level, it's more about making a beautiful laboratory that functions well between departments and regulatory agencies. You're leading the supervisors as they're taking care of the teams and helping to set a culture that makes people want to come into work and do a good job.”
Dr. Michael Baker presenting his “challenge coin” to Diana Tain, a Malaysian artist and embryologist who helped him design the medallion-like piece.
Baker’s own professional journey in fertility care began at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. On the heels of earning his bachelor’s degree in genetics at Texas A&M, the budding scientist entered UTSW as a graduate student in genetics and development but was considering a move to the institution’s reproductive biology program. That’s when he connected with Sunday Crider, a local IVF lab director and early mentor, and landed an opportunity to observe embryologists at work. “The moment I saw ICSI, I was sold,” Baker says, reminiscing about his first day in the lab. “I thought, this is a perfect balance of science, technology, and helping patients … I recognized pretty quickly that’s where I wanted to be.”
So he switched gears, ultimately completing his new PhD requirements in an efficient 4.5 years and landing his first job as an andrologist/junior embryologist at a clinic in Fort Worth. The lab’s staffing shortages and other challenges rendered the gig less than ideal, but Baker says he learned valuable lessons while he was there—including what not to do, should he find himself running his own lab one day. “I didn't have success with my embryology training in that first position,” he recalls. “But I [was able to lay] a great foundation of understanding regulatory requirements and accreditation standards, how to talk with patients, and how to operate within a clinic.”
Looking to expand his technical skills, Baker then took an embryologist position at IntegraMed Fertility in South Florida, where he relocated with his wife and young son. Within two years, the scientist (who had been training with new mentor Kathy Miller) was promoted to supervisor—effectively “starting the clock,” he says, on the experience he’d need to sit for director exams.
With Miller’s encouragement, he went for his HCLD and his first-ever director job at Denver Fertility Albrecht Women’s Care in 2019. Two years later, recruiters for Aspire Fertility—part of the Prelude Network, the nation’s largest provider of fertility care—came knocking, eventually convincing the newbie director to take a position back in his home state, where he’s been working ever since.
“I realized that our industry needed strong leaders to set standards and raise the bar on what lab working conditions might be.”
Baker has served as the onsite lab director for Aspire Fertility San Antonio since 2021.
The “Lab Director Pledge”
These days, Baker directs three labs in the Prelude Network, including offsite facilities in San Francisco and Philadelphia. Joining the organization, Baker says, has been among his “most impactful career moves” to date. “The Prelude Network is an exceptional place for fertility professionals to grow, as it combines a mission-driven focus on patient care with deep support for the development of its teams. Prelude understands that the best fertility journey for our patients starts with a satisfied, well-supported team,” he says. “Aligning my goals with Prelude’s mission has enabled me to drive meaningful change across our entire network and positively influence the broader embryology community.”
With Prelude’s backing, Baker isn’t just looking out for his own staff; he’s thinking about embryologists (and the lab directors guiding them) all across the U.S. One way to care for these up-and-coming leaders, Baker says? Making sure they don’t burn out. That’s the thinking, anyway, behind the scientist’s 10-point “lab director pledge,” which he published on LinkedIn back in 2022. With commitments to everything from limiting the length of daily lab shifts to facilitating much-needed vacation time to providing support for continuing education, the pledge encourages all lab directors to make their facilities better, more positive places to work through appropriate staffing models. Not only will adhering to its tenets enhance patient safety, Baker argues, it will also keep gifted embryologists committed to a field that desperately needs them.
“Some of these points should not need to be stated but, trust me, they do,” Baker wrote in his post, referring also to ideas like capping the number of consecutive work days, ensuring double witnessing for all IVF processes, and establishing emergency staffing plans. “Talk about [this pledge], share it, request it and hopefully more employers will take this pledge. Those which do should have little trouble retaining and recruiting valuable talent in today’s competitive job market.”
While the pledge has encountered some resistance from lab directors who maintain (among other critiques) that some of these pain points are out of their control, it has also garnered praise from others in the field. “I was met with a lot of support and I know a lot of laboratory directors that have committed to the spirit of the pledge,” Baker says. “Maybe those specifics don't work in every laboratory, but the spirit of the pledge is what matters.”
Baker’s challenge coins
Preparing for the future
For Baker, the pledge helps “define what a good lab may look like,” he says. “Defining ‘good’ helps embryologists recognize that they can have a sustainable career if they can find somewhere that will take care of them.”
Finding that lab can be tricky, though. And that’s where Baker’s so-called “challenge coins” come in. Recognizing the field’s retention difficulties, the scientist came up with the colorful, medallion-like pieces as a motivational tool to help keep embryologists in the game. Designed with the help of Diana Tain—a Malaysian artist and fellow embryologist with whom Baker connected online—the coins feature a blastocyst on one side and a germinal vesicle (GV) on the other.
“I started giving [them] out to senior embryologists and telling them, ‘On your worst days in the lab, when you're super frustrated and you're about ready to throw in the towel and go work at Starbucks, flip the coin. If it lands on the blast, stick it out one more day. If tomorrow you have to flip it again and it lands on the GV, call me; I'm gonna be there to help you solve your problems,” he says. “That’s where my offer of mentoring embryologists across the country comes in because whatever words I've used to solve my problems in six labs across the country, hopefully those could be successful in your [lab] as well.”
Baker, who estimates that he’s given out as many as 600 coins since introducing them this year, gives a version out to students in training programs too. “I'm really just looking out for the future and trying to curb our staffing crisis on the back end,” he says. “We need those experienced people to help build up the next generation.”
What Dr. Baker says about working at Prelude
See what opportunities are available to work with embryologists who share your values and support your success.
Alongside experts like Dr. Michael Baker, you’ll experience:
Clear Career Pathways: Robust career ladder and growth opportunities
Continuous Education: Structured training and professional development
Collaborative Environment: Be part of a supportive, innovation-driven team
Work-Life Balance: Focus on well-being and long-term career satisfaction
Patient-Centered Excellence: Drive change with best-in-class practices
Discover fresh career opportunities NOW! - click to review current openings.
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