Tracy Baynes

Tracy Baynes is the Founder and CEO of STEP: Student Expedition Program (STEP College-Prep) – a college access and leadership program for low-income Arizona high-school students. She received her doctorate in oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1993. After several years as a coral reef researcher, Tracy turned her full focus to teaching in 1996. She taught and developed field courses for Columbia University’s Biosphere 2 Center, Sea Education Association, University of Pittsburgh, Long Island University, and Prescott College, including a tall-ship-based ocean semester on the west coast, sailing from California to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico and across the Pacific to Hawaii. In 2004, Tracy founded STEP’s College-Prep and Leadership Program with the focused mission of educating and empowering low-income Arizona high-school students to enroll in and graduate from college. To date, 96% of STEP’s College-Prep Program alumni are in college or have attained a college degree.