Davis Jenkins is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center and a research professor in Education and Social Policy at Teachers College. He works with colleges, schools, community groups, and employers in communities and states across the country to find ways to improve educational and employment outcomes for students from groups that have been poorly served by the U.S. educational system.
Together with Thomas Bailey and Shanna Jaggars, he co-authored Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success (Harvard University Press, 2015), which has helped to catalyze a national “guided pathways” whole-college reform movement. For the past six years, Jenkins has led research involving over 100 colleges nationally on the implementation of pathways reforms and their effects on student outcomes and college performance. His recent publications include Using Guided Pathways to Build Cross-Sector Pathways Partnerships (with Sarah Griffin and Serena Klempin), Funding Guided Pathways: A Guide for Community College Leaders (with Amy Brown, Maggie Fay, and Hana Lahr), and The Dual Enrollment Playbook: A Guide to Equitable Acceleration for Students (jointly researched and written with Josh Wyner and Gelsey Mehl from the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program).
Jenkins earned a PhD in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University and an AB in religion from Princeton University.
