Susan Baker, one of the journal's Honorary Editors, is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she has a joint appointment in Environmental Health Sciences. She also holds joint appointments in the School of Medicine in the Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine departments.

An epidemiologist specialising in injury prevention, Professor Baker was the first Director of the Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention Center. She has served as vice chair of the National Academy of Science's Committee on Trauma Research and as President of the American Association for Automotive Medicine. Her research topics have included injuries related to motor vehicles and airplane crashes as well as medical care of the injured, injury severity scoring, geographic variation in injury mortality, and deaths and injuries in the military population, to name but a few. She is well known for developing the widely used injury severity score. Her long list of publications include eight textbook chapters, more than 200 journal articles, magazine articles for the public, and three books—The Injury Fact Book, Saving Children: A Guide to Injury Prevention, and Injury Prevention: an International Perspective.

Sue Baker's talents extend beyond the academic. She has taken primary and advanced courses in airplane crash survival investigation and has served on FAA sponsored expert panels on shoulder restraint use and the Age 60 Rule. She is a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. She is a also licensed private pilot and an Associate Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association.

She has been awarded the Prince Bernhard Medal for distinguished research, the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine's Award of Merit, the American Trauma Society's Distinguished Achievement Award and Stone Lectureship Award—and being named “Bad Guy of the Month” by Road Rider motorcyclist magazine! In 1989, Professor Baker received the prestigious Charles A Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health. A distinguished speaker, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, of which she is an honorary member, chose her to give the Fitz Oration in 1996. Johns Hopkins University presented her with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996, and two years later the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, bestowed on her an honorary Doctor of Science degree. In 1999, the American Public Health Association gave her its Award for Excellence.

Susan Baker is, in her own words, an ardent advocate for policy changes that will prevent injuries. Much of her teaching and research has been—and continues to be—designed to influence the legislators, administrators, media representatives, and others whose decisions can determine the likelihood of injury for thousands of people.