2020 Faculty Governance Award

Citation for Kathleen Jenkins

Professor Jenkins has long been committed to leadership through governance. With wisdom and a steady hand, she has helped to usher in changes benefitting the people, curriculum, and administration of our undergraduate education. Serving two terms as department chair, she worked with the faculty to establish new departmental structures that included the integration of NTE faculty and the addition of teaching-enhancement meetings. She also facilitated a careful shift in the departmental curriculum, resulting in four tracks for the major and alignment with the COLL Curriculum.

Recently she contributed substantially to furthering Arts & Sciences goals in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion through service as co-director of the Spring 2019 A&S Task Force for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity and as a member of the year-long Ad Hoc Committee on COLL 199 (now 350) Implementation. She has also served as co-director of the Council of Chairs and Program Directors; co-chair of the Committee on Faculty Awards, Prizes, and Professorships; co-director and director of the Institute for Pilgrimage Studies; vice-president and historian for the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa; and as a member of the American Studies Executive Committee, Mapping Grants IT Selection Committee, 1693 Student Selection Committee, and Library Policy Committee. Beginning in Fall 2020 she will help high-ability, low-income students at Richard Bland College prepare to succeed at William & Mary through her role as a Richard Bland Fellow.

For her many contributions, it is fitting that she now be recognized with the Arts & Sciences 2020 Faculty Governance Award.