About Toby
Higher education has been both a workplace and a laboratory for possibility.
Toby S. Jenkins, Ph.D. is a tenured Professor in the Department of Leadership & Inquiry. Jenkins is a highly sought after expert on leadership development. She has provided professional development training and keynote speaking engagements for over 50 national and international organizations. Across universities, consulting engagements, classrooms, research projects, public programs, and keynote stages, Jenkins has consistently focused on the human side of institutions: how people experience organizations, how culture shapes opportunity, how stories reveal what conventional metrics miss, and how institutions can become more intentional about developing the people within them.
Academic Career
Dr. Jenkins has authored seven books focused on the evolving ideologies of culture, family, and education in contemporary society. Her most recent book, The Hip-Hop Mindset: Success Strategies for Educators & Other Professionals explores success mindsets and transformative leadership practices found within cultural communities. Her book, My Culture, My Color, My Self: Heritage, Resilience and Community in the Lives of Young Adults (Temple University Press, 2013) was named by the Association of American University Press to the list of "Top 100 Books for Understanding Human Relations in the US".
Leadership should create possibility.
Administrative Experience
Faculty Development: As Associate Provost for Faculty Development, Jenkins was responsible for developing and implementing a new campus-wide mid-career faculty development program (tenured, research, and clinical faculty). This initiative emphasizes multiple paths to achievement in research and scholarship, teaching and mentoring, and community engagement and academic field service. She also surveyed and inventoried current faculty development programs across schools, colleges, and units not only to highlight best practices but also to point out gaps in faculty development offerings. Jenkins provides the institution expert knowledge on viable faculty investment practices.
Graduate Education: As Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Jenkins served on the senior leadership team who were responsible for providing broad oversight of initiatives and actions leading towards greater student engagement and success in the Graduate School. Major responsibilities include: Leading strategic initiatives in support of the University’s efforts in graduate student recruitment, retention, professional development, and career-readiness training. Partnering with department chairs, graduate directors, other administrative staff, faculty, and students to create a positive and supportive climate.
Student Affairs Administration: Before becoming a professor, Dr. Jenkins spent 10 years working as an administrator in higher education. In 2004, Dr. Jenkins came to Penn State University to direct the Paul Robeson Cultural Center. At Penn State she spent five years implementing a bold strategic vision for the cultural center. From 2000-2004, Dr. Jenkins worked at the University of Maryland within Academic Affairs as Assistant Director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center. While at UMCP, Jenkins planned university events bringing to campus artists and intellectuals such as Outkast, Maya Angelou, Elie Wiesel, Doug E. Fresh, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Johnnie Cochran, Nikki Giovanni, Dick Gregory, Dave Chapelle, and Bill Maher. She also served as a Program Manager within the College of Education conducting research assessment and creating mentoring outreach programs to local K-12 schools in the Institute for Urban Education. Highlights of her time at UMCP, include the creation of the Joint Service Project, which brought together college students, faculty, and staff in service efforts within the Washington, DC community and the development of the Vision Cultural Mentoring Initiative, which provided college mentors and interactive cultural experiences for local high school students at low performing schools in Prince Georges County. Both programs received honors from the President of the United States and the Governor of Maryland.
Global Education: Dr. Jenkins past professional experience as a student affairs staff member with Semester at Sea as well as her individual research projects and studies have taken her to over 40 countries. Additionally, she worked with students from over 50 countries as the resident life director for the Johns Hopkins University Office of Summer Programs.
The path was never one straight line.
That became an advantage.
Public Relations & Event Planning
Prior to her work in higher education, Jenkins worked for Momentum, IMC as an event marketing account executive. At Momentum she planned national entertainment events for the Coca Cola Company. Before that, she worked at Oscar Mayer foods as media spokesperson for the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. At Oscar Mayer she traveled the country with the Wienermobile auditioning children to star in the Oscar Mayer commercial. Her past work in the public relations field built exceptional creative, written communication, media relations, and public speaking skillsets.
Academic Career
Dr. Jenkins has authored seven books focused on the evolving ideologies of culture, family, and education in contemporary society. Her most recent book, The Hip-Hop Mindset: Success Strategies for Educators & Other Professionals explores success mindsets and transformative leadership practices found within cultural communities. Her book, My Culture, My Color, My Self: Heritage, Resilience and Community in the Lives of Young Adults (Temple University Press, 2013) was named by the Association of American University Press to the list of "Top 100 Books for Understanding Human Relations in the US".
Leadership should create possibility.
Administrative Experience
Faculty Development: As Associate Provost for Faculty Development, Jenkins was responsible for developing and implementing a new campus-wide mid-career faculty development program (tenured, research, and clinical faculty). This initiative emphasizes multiple paths to achievement in research and scholarship, teaching and mentoring, and community engagement and academic field service. She also surveyed and inventoried current faculty development programs across schools, colleges, and units not only to highlight best practices but also to point out gaps in faculty development offerings. Jenkins provides the institution expert knowledge on viable faculty investment practices.
Graduate Education: As Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Jenkins served on the senior leadership team who were responsible for providing broad oversight of initiatives and actions leading towards greater student engagement and success in the Graduate School. Major responsibilities include: Leading strategic initiatives in support of the University’s efforts in graduate student recruitment, retention, professional development, and career-readiness training. Partnering with department chairs, graduate directors, other administrative staff, faculty, and students to create a positive and supportive climate.
Student Affairs Administration: Before becoming a professor, Dr. Jenkins spent 10 years working as an administrator in higher education. In 2004, Dr. Jenkins came to Penn State University to direct the Paul Robeson Cultural Center. At Penn State she spent five years implementing a bold strategic vision for the cultural center. From 2000-2004, Dr. Jenkins worked at the University of Maryland within Academic Affairs as Assistant Director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center. While at UMCP, Jenkins planned university events bringing to campus artists and intellectuals such as Outkast, Maya Angelou, Elie Wiesel, Doug E. Fresh, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Johnnie Cochran, Nikki Giovanni, Dick Gregory, Dave Chapelle, and Bill Maher. She also served as a Program Manager within the College of Education conducting research assessment and creating mentoring outreach programs to local K-12 schools in the Institute for Urban Education. Highlights of her time at UMCP, include the creation of the Joint Service Project, which brought together college students, faculty, and staff in service efforts within the Washington, DC community and the development of the Vision Cultural Mentoring Initiative, which provided college mentors and interactive cultural experiences for local high school students at low performing schools in Prince Georges County. Both programs received honors from the President of the United States and the Governor of Maryland.
Global Education: Dr. Jenkins past professional experience as a student affairs staff member with Semester at Sea as well as her individual research projects and studies have taken her to over 40 countries. Additionally, she worked with students from over 50 countries as the resident life director for the Johns Hopkins University Office of Summer Programs.
The path was never one straight line.
That became an advantage.
Public Relations & Event Planning
Prior to her work in higher education, Jenkins worked for Momentum, IMC as an event marketing account executive. At Momentum she planned national entertainment events for the Coca Cola Company. Before that, she worked at Oscar Mayer foods as media spokesperson for the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. At Oscar Mayer she traveled the country with the Wienermobile auditioning children to star in the Oscar Mayer commercial. Her past work in the public relations field built exceptional creative, written communication, media relations, and public speaking skillsets.
“ We must engage in the courageous effort to create a world that we have not yet seen, but that we know is possible.”
A creative approach to the work.
A scholar, author, cultural strategist, speaker, and higher education leader, her work explores what becomes possible when culture, human development, and institutional change intersect. Her work resists the idea that scholarship, leadership, culture, and practice belong in separate lanes. Instead, she treats each as a source of knowledge for the others.
Culture can produce theory. Story can produce strategy. Experience can produce insight. Research can move beyond publication and become action.
The result is a body of work grounded in a simple belief: meaningful change happens when institutions attend not only to what people do, but to who they are becoming while they do it.
Culture can produce theory. Story can produce strategy. Experience can produce insight. Research can move beyond publication and become action.
The result is a body of work grounded in a simple belief: meaningful change happens when institutions attend not only to what people do, but to who they are becoming while they do it.