The New England Board of Higher Education honored Jackie Jenkins-Scott, president of Roxbury Community College, with its Massachusetts Excellence Award on May 10. The award recognizes President Jenkins-Scott’s decades of superior leadership in higher education and mission-driven institutions.
With more than three decades of leading mission-driven institutions in education and health care, Jenkins-Scott was recognized for her expertise in bringing together diverse talent from boards, staff, and business and civic communities to achieve larger goals.
Her experience includes serving as 13th president and first African American president of Wheelock College in Boston. There, she advocated the college’s mission to improve the lives of children and families, increased the endowment and enrollment, and expanded facilities.
“President Jenkins-Scott has had a career of leading institutions that are essential to Boston’s future, from the Dimock Center to Wheelock College to Roxbury Community College at the time of its 50th anniversary,” said Michael K. Thomas, president and chief executive officer of the New England Board of Higher Education. “She demonstrates vision, insight and a deep understanding of what communities need to thrive.”
Speakers at the event described Jenkins-Scott’s innovative and transformational leadership of Roxbury Community College as it reached its 50th anniversary in 2023 and announced plans for the college’s new Business Innovation Center and Center for Economic and Social Justice.
As president and CEO of the Dimock Community Health Center (now the Dimock Center) in Roxbury, she transformed Dimock from near-bankruptcy to a benchmark institution that integrates comprehensive health and human services for diverse, vulnerable populations.
Since 2003, NEBHE has recognized people and groups with Excellence Awards for their exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and advancement of educational opportunity. Past recipients include the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the Honorable Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, Mary K. Grant, past president of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Carole A. Cowan, past president of Middlesex Community College.
Jenkins-Scott earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Michigan University, a Master of Social Work from Boston University School of Social Work, and completed a post-graduate research fellowship at Radcliffe College. She is the author of the 2020 book, “The 7 Secrets of Responsive Leadership” and was named in Boston Magazine’s 2024 list of the 150 Most Influential Bostonians.
