Mia Ahrens Baker, a Los Angeles County special assistant district attorney who devoted much of her career to advancing programs for victims and witnesses of crime, died on December 5 after a five-month battle with lung cancer. She was 67. She died peacefully in her home in Pacific Palisades with her husband Edmund Aleks, her two sons, and her daughter-in-law at her side. Baker was regarded as a caring and loyal friend who could always be counted on for support in difficult times, whether standing by your side or organizing a bone-marrow drive to find a matching donor. She was tireless in her efforts to help those she loved. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University in 1961, Baker received a master’s degree in education from Stanford two years later. In 1985, she graduated from Southwestern Law School, where she served as the Law Review Note and Comment Editor and was selected as Dean’s Scholar, Bradley Scholar, and Carrol Scholar. She was awarded the Wall Street Journal Award and the Corpus Juris Secundum Award. Baker first joined the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office as the Victim Witness Assistance program director in 1985. Most recently, she was responsible for much of the grant funding for that office. Her inventive ideas and grant-writing skills helped fund a number of District Attorney programs, many of which have been replicated elsewhere in California and in other states. Several programs have received local, state and national innovation and excellence awards. A dedicated volunteer in public service, Baker served in or held executive positions with the L.A. County Bar Association, the California State Bar, the California District Attorney’s Association, the California Victim and Witness Coordinating Council, the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, the L.A. County Domestic Violence Council, the L.A. County Commission for Children’s Services, the L.A. County Interagency Task Force on Rape and Sexual Abuse Examinations, the Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, the California Consortium on the Prevention of Child Abuse, and Stanford Professional Women of Los Angeles. Along with her professional and public service activities, Baker was known for her fine cooking and gardening. She learned to cook by watching cooking shows and reading Julia Child, and she developed into a cuisine chef. Invitations to her holiday meals were highly prized by friends and family. She had a love of beauty, a strong sense of style, and an ability to often transform the world around her from the ordinary to the spectacular. `Baker is survived by her husband of 16 years, Edmund Aleks; her sons, Robert Baker (wife Kelly) of Champaign, Illinois, and Randall Baker (wife Peggy) of Eugene, Oregon; and her two grandchildren, Caitlin and Mackenzie Baker. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on December 28 at the Palisades Lutheran Church, 15905 Sunset. The family prefers donations to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers.
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