When Smoke Rises, So Does Purpose

It started out as a normal Tuesday morning for 9-year-old Dianna Baker, a fourth-grade student at Shanksville-Stonycreek School in a small Pennsylvania town. But, shortly after 10 a.m., an unexpected, jolting crash shook the building — and nothing was ever the same again.

“We saw a gigantic plume of smoke rising above the tree line,” Dianna remembers. It was September 11, 2001, and United Airlines Flight 93 had just crashed near her school after passengers fought back against terrorist hijackers. All 44 people on board lost their lives. First responders, federal agents, and investigators rushed in.

The town was changed. The world was changed. And Dianna Baker’s path was changed, too.

“That was monumental for my development, my priorities, and what I wanted to do with my life,” Dianna says. “It showed me what it means to be a hero — that giving back to your community is really important.”

A Public Servant in the Making

As she grew up, Dianna continued to hold public service in high esteem and searched for a way to make her own contribution. Meanwhile, God directed her search. In high school, while attending a Christian music festival with her youth group, she won a drawing for a $16,000 scholarship to Liberty University in Virginia.

During her undergrad studies there in pre-law, with a minor in criminal justice, Dr. Stephen Parke, a professor who was a former prosecuting attorney for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps at Guantanamo Bay, helped clarify her path. “He really inspired me,” Dianna says. “I knew then that I wanted to be a prosecutor. I felt like that was something that matched my skills, abilities, and God-given interests, and would make a huge difference in the community, country, and world.”

With that decided, it was time to choose a law school. Hoping to explore military internships, the proximity of Regent University’s School of Law in Virginia Beach to the world’s largest Navy base in Norfolk was part of what drew Dianna to apply. Another asset was David Velloney, an Army JAG veteran and a well-known and respected member of Regent’s faculty. “He had served our country in a meaningful way, and he taught a lot of the criminal law and criminal procedure classes,” Dianna explains. “I was excited to learn from him. He’s one of Regent Law’s best professors, in my opinion.”

While Dianna applied to several law schools, the Lord again made her next step very clear. Her high academic merit, LSAT scores, and desire to pursue a public service career made her a perfect fit for Regent’s World Changer Scholarship, and she received an offer that would cover her tuition in full. “For me, that was a way of God opening a door for me to walk through,” Dianna says. “I made a very simple decision at that point.”

Training to Change the World

That decision would significantly shape and prepare Dianna, providing a wealth of valuable hands-on experience over the next three years. “I had an opportunity to do a lot of practical training while I was at Regent,” Dianna says. First, she fulfilled her goal of interning at the U.S. Navy JAG Corps Region Legal Service Office before another internship in a judge’s chambers at the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Finally, with her third-year practice certificate, she interned with the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, where she began serving as counsel on real cases in court under the supervision of a licensed attorney. “That helped me feel particularly prepared and ready to go when it was time for me to start practicing,” she says.

Dianna graduated cum laude with Regent Law’s Class of 2015 and began her career as a prosecuting attorney. Over the last decade, she has prosecuted a variety of criminal cases, including murders, sexual assaults, and other violent crimes, with a particular passion for driving-under-the-influence prosecutions. Since 2022, she has served in her current role as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Lynchburg.

Fulfillment in Serving

“There are two things that I really love about my job,” Dianna says. “The first is that I get to help law enforcement. It’s in our community’s best interest for law enforcement to do their job well, effectively apprehending criminal behavior in a way that respects people’s constitutional rights — and, when we go to court, that the evidence is admitted, the convictions stick, and people are held accountable for the crimes that the police discover.”

Working toward that common goal, Dianna often assists in law enforcement training, whether she’s teaching a formal class or providing informal feedback about police investigations. “When police and prosecutors have a close working relationship, we all do our jobs better,” she says. “I find that really meaningful.”

The other part of Dianna’s job that she finds most rewarding is helping victims of crime — who, she points out, don’t get to choose their attorneys. While the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office technically represents the state rather than individual victims, the interests of the two often align. “It’s imperative to have someone compassionate and competent with the victim throughout the process, explain what’s happening, and seek accountability,” Dianna says.

“People would certainly give whatever they have to get the best attorney on their case, and I’m aware that they just get assigned to me for the most important thing happening in their life. I take that as a personal challenge to aspire to be the type of attorney that they would choose.”

“There is justice that’s greater than what we can achieve on an earthly level.”

The Bigger Picture

Though rewarding, Dianna’s work is also intense, and she must lean on her faith continually — on days good and bad. “Sometimes people escape accountability, and that can be really frustrating,” she says. “But I have to trust and believe that no one escapes being seen by God. There is justice that’s greater than what we can achieve on an earthly level.”

Even the victories, though important, can feel incomplete at times. “There’s no such thing as making a victim whole on an earthly level after a crime has been committed,” Dianna says soberly.

So what keeps her going? “Keeping in mind that all the people we work with — including crime victims and the individuals who’ve committed crimes — are all made in the image of God, dictates perspective,” she says. “We need to take it seriously when an individual made in God’s image has been victimized. We’ve also got to do it in a manner that’s fair, that takes into account the bigger picture, because the person who’s being held accountable is also made in God’s image. It’s not just winning at all costs.”

Dianna credits her Christian education, including her time at Regent, for developing this worldview and the depth of faith that informs it. “I was blessed to have professors who taught the Word and who prayed with and for me,” she says. “It was particularly important for me to solidify my understanding of what I believe and why, over and against what I do not believe and why, before I entered a secular career where I regularly confront depravity.” 

Back to Regent

Realizing how much she enjoyed teaching — whether working with law enforcement officers, new attorneys, or interns — Dianna took on an adjunct faculty role at Regent Law in addition to her primary job, finding the two roles similar in some ways. “Being a trial attorney and being a professor are both about taking complicated things and making them approachable,” she says. “Being at Regent was a positive time in my life, and I wanted to get plugged in.”

She started in 2020 by teaching a prep workshop for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which evolved into an eight-week synchronous online class called Legal Logical Reasoning in 2025, now available to bachelor’s and master’s students for three pass/fail credits. Eliminating the need for students to take an expensive commercial class on top of a normal course load, Regent has made it part of the curriculum as an elective to help students succeed.

“I’m thrilled to be able to teach this class,” Dianna says. “The LSAT is a test that students can absolutely improve their score on. Because I took a prep class and studied, I was in a position where I could earn a largely academic, full-tuition scholarship, so it really opens doors. LSAT prep is a worthwhile endeavor for a pre-law student.”

Dianna also teaches Interviewing and Investigations — a course on constitutional criminal procedure that she developed for Regent — as well as Legal Ethics.

“We’re all here because other, more experienced attorneys have invested in us. It’s very meaningful for me to be able to do that for the next generation of attorneys.”

Mentorship That Ripples

Yet she’s providing more than just academic preparation to her students — she’s extending the same kind of mentorship that she and her fellow Regent students received. “I firmly believe that I am where I am personally and professionally right now because of professors and mentors, like Ernie Walton [now Dean of Regent Law], who have reached out and pulled me up,” she says. “We’re all here because other, more experienced attorneys have invested in us. It’s very meaningful for me to be able to do that for the next generation of attorneys.”

One student, who is thankful for Dianna’s guidance and support, says, “Her investment in student success is instrumental. She embodies Christ’s love in her teaching, and she is highly respected in her field.”

Dianna knows firsthand how important a solid foundation is. “I’m trying to invest in each student as a whole person, help them prepare for their future goals, and support them in growing in their faith,” she says. “Before any student goes into their career — especially a career like mine, in which you’re staring evil in the face — before they confront that, it’s important for an attorney to understand what truth is. Where are their roots when things get challenging? What do they fall back on?”

Purpose Prevails

A grounding in that absolute truth was what Dianna sought in a law school, and she’s thankful to have found it — first as a student, and again as a professor. Regent Law’s aim to prepare “practice-ready, purpose-driven” attorneys is something she can wholeheartedly attest to. “It really fits well when I think about what Regent has been in my life,” she says.

“I did not pursue a legal career for my own purposes. I see it as a means of public service — a means of loving God’s people and serving the community. I know why I’m doing this. Regent prepared me to do it well through a firm academic curriculum and practical experience — all the while, I was well supported and inspired by my professors.”

When a heart seeking to serve is equipped with professional expertise and a purpose that honors Christ, lives are changed, people are inspired, and God is glorified. Just ask any of the victims, families, law enforcement officers, pre-law students, or Christian attorneys who are the beneficiaries of Dianna’s service.

Just like she witnessed on September 11, in the midst of evil, tragedy, and pain, God raises up willing servants to extend His love and provide help. Dianna Baker is one of them, and her students will be too.