Jackie Jenkins-Scott

University president Jackie Jenkins-Scott was born on August 18, 1949 in Damascus, Arkansas to Verdie Byers and Raymond Jenkins. She graduated from Flint Northwestern High School in Michigan in 1967 and went on to earn her B.A. degree in sociology and psychology from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1971. In 1973, Jenkins-Scott graduated from Boston University in Massachusetts with her M.S.W degree.

In 1971, Jenkins-Scott worked as a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health before being hired as director of the Roxbury Court Clinic, a mental health diagnostic and treatment facility, from 1977 to 1983. Jenkins-Scott then joined Dimock Center, a community-based health and human service agency in Boston, Massachusetts, and served as its CEO from 1983 to 2004. She then became the first African American president of Wheelock College in Boston, where she served from 2004 to 2016. In 2016, she founded JJS Advising, an organizational and corporate consulting agency. Jenkins-Scott was appointed interim president of Roxbury Community College in 2022, a position she held until 2024.

During her career, Jenkins-Scott also served on the board of directors of the Boston Foundation from 2005 to 2015, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum from 2002 to 2017, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy in 2017. In 2007, she was selected by former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to co-chair the School Readiness Action Planning Team. Jenkins-Scott was appointed president of the International Women’s Forum Massachusetts in 2019, serving until 2021.

Jenkins-Scott has also received honorary doctorates from Northeastern University in 2006 and Wheelock College in 2003, as well as an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2012. Her other accolades include the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University and the Pinnacle Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2004 and the Change Agent Award from Color Magazine in 2010. She received a Harvard Club of Boston Recognition in 2015.

Jenkins-Scott resides in Boston, Massachusetts. She has two adult children and one grandchild.

Jackie Jenkins-Scott was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 3, 2024.