Lindamichelle Baron wishes she knew the person who said, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Her pleasure truly is her business, she says. Baron has enjoyed teaching since she was 10. At the time, she would gather friends and fellow students and instruct them in how to read with expression. With more than 30 years in the education field, her transition from New York City public school teacher to college professor seemed natural. Baron is now a tenured assistant professor of education at York College, a City University of New York institution.

Her passion for education and books led her from working in publishing early in her career to starting her very own publishing company, Harlin Jacque Publications, some 20 years ago. She also founded I’ve Known Rivers Press, a nonprofit publishing company dedicated to the works of underserved writers. She is most proud of the first book published by that company—one written by her nephew chronicling his personal transformation as a result of a period of incarceration. Baron herself has authored several books of poetry and is a contributor to Tales With Tails (Pen & Rose Press and Harlin Jacque Publications), a collection of animal stories for young people. Other works include a textbook series on writing and The Sun Is On (Harlin Jacque), a poetry and idea book that New York State middle schools list as recommended reading.

Besides her father, Herman Alexander Baron, who was a musician, composer, minister and public advocate, teachers were the greatest influence in Baron’s life. Two in particular are her junior-high school teacher James Clifton Morris, whom she calls an “English teacher extraordinaire,” and New York State Vice Chancellor Adelaide Sanford, the first school principal she worked for when she began her teaching career.

If she had the power to do so, Baron says, she would build a huge mirror that would enable children to see themselves beyond their own limited stereotypical view. Baron has a bachelor’s degree in childhood education from New York University and a master’s in education and reading and doctorate in cross-categorical studies from Teachers College at Columbia University.