{{Short description|American attorney, legal scholar, and academic administrator}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Garry W. Jenkins | office = 9th President of Bates College | predecessor = A. Clayton Spencer | term_start = July 1, 2023 | spouse = Jon Lee | education = Haverford College (BA)<br />Harvard Kennedy School (MPP)<br />Harvard Law School (JD) }}
'''Garry William Jenkins''' is an American attorney, educator, and higher education administrator. He is the ninth president of Bates College, and the first Black person and first openly gay person to lead the institution.<ref name="stires">{{Cite web |first= Deirdre |last=Stires |date=May 4, 2024 |title=Bates College installs Garry W. Jenkins as ninth president |url=https://www.bates.edu/news/2024/05/04/bates-college-installs-garry-w-jenkins-as-ninth-president/ |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=Bates News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Christine |last=Charnosky |title=Minnesota Law Dean to Become Both the First Black President and First Gay President of Bates College |url=https://www.law.com/2023/03/03/minnesota-law-dean-to-become-both-the-first-black-president-and-first-gay-president-of-bates-college/ |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=Law.com |language=en}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Garry W. Jenkins was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Leslie Jenkins, a high school teacher, and Garry C. Jenkins, a computer programmer. He grew up in South Orange, NJ with his parents and younger brother.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1, 2023 |title=Garry Jenkins selected as ninth president of Bates College |url=https://www.bates.edu/news/2023/03/01/bates-college-selects-garry-jenkins-as-ninth-president/ |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website= Bates News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="stires"/> He attended Delbarton School.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Jessica |last=Fiddes |date=May 6, 2024 |title=Garry Jenkins '88 Installed as Bates College President|url=https://www.delbarton.org/about-us/news-detail/~board/homepage/post/garry-jenkins-88-installed-as-bates-college-president |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=Delbarton School |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1992, Jenkins graduated from Haverford College with a bachelor's degree with honors in political science. He then received a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School and an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1998.<ref name="minn law school">{{Cite web |title=Jenkins, Garry |url=https://law.umn.edu/profiles/garry-jenkins |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=University of Minnesota Law School}}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Business and legal career === After graduating from Harvard, Jenkins clerked for Hon. Timothy K. Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.<ref name="minn law school"/> He then worked as an attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett before serving as chief operating officer and general counsel at the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Prior to graduate school, he began his professional career with Prudential Financial.
=== Academia === After two years at the Goldman Sachs Foundation, Jenkins joined the faculty at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2004. At Ohio State, he was the associate dean for academic affairs and John C. Elam/Vorys Sater Professor of Law. He also co-founded and directed the Program on Law and Leadership at Moritz, one of the first such programs at a U.S. law school.
In 2016, Jenkins became the dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. As dean, Jenkins oversaw the largest fundraising campaign in the school's history and its endowment doubled. He also oversaw the rise in the school’s overall ranking (reaching a record high in U.S. News rankings), academic quality (highest sentering student credentials on record), and the diversity of the student body (also reaching record highs. Jenkins also resolved a major budget deficit restoring the law school to fiscal health,<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 13, 2016 |first=Elizabeth |last=Olson |title=Minnesota Law School, Facing Waning Interest, Cuts Admissions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/business/dealbook/minnesota-law-school-facing-waning-interest-cuts-admissions.html |access-date=June 27, 2025 |website=New York Times}}</ref> expanded experiential learning by creating new law clinics, improved student employment and bar passage outcomes, and increased resources for student mental health and wellbeing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1, 2023 |title=Dean Jenkins Named President of Bates College; Will Conclude Service at Minnesota Law on June 30 |url=https://law.umn.edu/news/2023-03-01-dean-jenkins-named-president-bates-college-will-conclude-service-minnesota-law-june |access-date=June 27, 2025 |website=Minnesota Law News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=June 28, 2023 |title=Garry W. Jenkins |url=https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/ |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=Office of the President |language=en}}</ref>
=== Honors and recognition === Jenkins has received several awards and honors for excellence in scholarship in corporate law, nonprofit law, and global justice. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2019, and he is a fellow of the American Bar Association. For his academic administrative work, he earned a Diversity and Inclusion Award from the Minnesota Lawyer in 2022, and he was named to the Lawyers of Color “Power List” in 2020 and 2023. In 2023, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Albany Law School.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 12, 2023 |title= Bates President Garry W. Jenkins awarded honorary degree by Albany Law School |url=https://www.bates.edu/news/2023/12/12/bates-president-garry-w-jenkins-awarded-honorary-degree-by-albany-law-school/|access-date=July 4, 2025 |website=Bates News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 1, 2023 |title=Albany Law School Inauguration |url= https://www.albanylaw.edu/inauguration |access-date=July 4, 2025 |website=Albany Law News |language=en}}</ref> He also received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award for his career success in higher education.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 7, 2025 |title=The Third Place honors community leaders at Black Excellence Awards |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2025/08/07/the-third-place-honors-community-leaders-at-black-excellence-awards/|access-date=August 7, 2025 |website=Portland Press Herald |language=en}}</ref>
Jenkins has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the National Women’s Law Center; Haverford College; Equal Justice Works; the Law School Admission Council; the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, among others. He was chair the deans’ steering committee of the Association of American Law Schools. By gubernatorial appointment, he served as one of Minnesota’s commissioners to the Uniform Law Commission.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1, 2023 |title=Bates Selects Garry W. Jenkins as Next President |url=https://nescac.com/news/2023/3/11/nescac-news-bates-selects-garry-w-jenkins-as-next-president.aspx |access-date=June 29, 2025 |website=NESCAC News |language=en}}</ref>
=== Bates College presidency === In March 2023, Jenkins was announced as the ninth president of Bates College, succeeding Clayton Spencer who had been president since 2012. Jenkins became the first Black and openly gay person to lead the institution in its history.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 4, 2024 |first=Steve |last=Collins |title=Garry Jenkins formally installed as 9th president of Bates College |url=https://www.sunjournal.com/2024/05/04/garry-jenkins-formally-installed-as-9th-president-of-bates-college/ |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=Lewiston Sun Journal}}</ref> He assumed office on July 1, 2023. His inauguration was delayed by six months after the 2023 Lewiston shootings, where 18 people were killed.<ref name="stires"/>
== Personal life == Jenkins is married to Jon Lee, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jon J. Lee |author=Oklahoma Law |url=https://law.ou.edu/faculty-and-staff/jon_lee |access-date=May 31, 2025 |website=University of Oklahoma College of Law |language=en-US}}</ref>
== External links == *Garry W. Jenkins at [https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/ Bates College] *Garry W. Jenkins at [https://law.umn.edu/profiles/garry-jenkins University of Minnesota Law School]
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Bates College presidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Garry}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century African-American lawyers Category:Presidents of Bates College Category:Haverford College alumni Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:African-American LGBTQ people Category:American LGBTQ lawyers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)