Davis Jenkins is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He works with colleges and states across the country to find ways to improve educational and employment outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income families. Jenkins’s research and thinking have informed the development and spread of innovative approaches to improving student success. 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 the national “guided pathways” reform movement. Dr. Jenkins is currently leading research on the implementation of pathways reforms and their effects on student outcomes and college performance. Jenkins is also leading research on improving bachelor’s outcomes for community college students, and strengthening high school dual enrollment as an on-ramp to college. Recent publications from those lines of research include a report published with Aspen Institute and the National Student Clearinghouse on transfer outcomes by institution and state, the Transfer Playbook, co-researched and co-authored with Josh Wyner and team at the Aspen Institute, and a new report on college outcomes for students who take dual enrollment courses through community colleges while in high school. Jenkins earned a Ph.D. in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s in religion from Princeton University.
