Dr. Barbara Jenkins, EdD, a twenty-five-year educator, currently serves as chief of staff for Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida. As an executive cabinet member of large urban district with over 24,000 staff members serving 177,000 students she serves as the superintendent’s designee, oversees strategic planning, community relations, legislative and governmental relations, human resources, labor relations, and school board support.

From 1998 to 2005, she was the assistant superintendent of human resources for the 120,000-student district Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, where she was responsible for employee relations, licensure, benefits, information systems, Compensation and Employment. During her time in Charlotte, she was recognized in Urban School Reform: Lessons from San Diego (Harvard Education Press 2005) for innovative strategies to increase equity among schools, including accelerated staffing strategies, limited teacher transfers, case management for new hires and use of a balanced scorecard to track teacher equity measures. She previously served as senior director for elementary education in Orange County, supervising principals and schools.

Dr. Jenkins has also been a classroom teacher, staff developer and principal. She earned her undergraduate and doctor of education degrees from the University of Central Florida. Dr. Jenkins is a fellow of the Broad Superintendents Academy.