Davis Jenkins is a senior researcher at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.  A key focus of his work is finding ways to strengthen the capacity of public postsecondary institutions, particularly community colleges, to educate economically and educationally disadvantaged individuals for gainful employment in a knowledge economy.  Among his current projects, Davis is directing a series of studies, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatoin, that use administrative data collected by state agencies to chart the paths of community college students within and across educational systems and identify determinants of educational and labor market success.  His recent publications include: Institutional Effectiveness and Student Success: A Study of High- and Low-Impact Community Colleges, and Using Longitudinal Data to Increase Community College Student Success: A Guide to Measuring Milestone and Momentum Point Attainment (with Tim Leinbach).  Davis is one of the originators of the “career pathways” concept, and advises states, colleges, workforce boards and other groups on aligning public resources for education, workforce and economic development to support educational and economic advancement for individuals and better address regional labor force needs.  Davis has over 25 years of experience as a researcher, evaluator, consultant and program manager on projects related to education for employment in the U.S. and abroad.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University.

November 2009