Dr. Baack is the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at USD-SSOM and a neonatologist and Scientist in the Nutrition and developmental origin of health and disease (DOHaD) fields at Sanford Research.

Dr. Baack teaches clinical content in the Department of Pediatrics and mentors undergraduate and graduate students, as well as medical students and residents in research.

Dr. Baack leads clinical, translational, and basic research platforms. She is Sanford Health's site PI for NICHD Neonatal Research Network clinical trials. Her lab uses animal and cell models to understand the role of nutrition, metabolism and mitochondria in development and disease susceptibility across the lifespan. She also leads Sanford’s the PLACENTA Outcomes study, which uses translational modeling to understand molecular mechanisms of developmentally programmed disease in high-risk populations. The overarching goal of the Baack Lab is to discover well-timed and clinically feasible dietary interventions that improve reproductive and life-long metabolic health in not only one, but many generations.