Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins

Career She worked in the Cleveland public schools starting in 1979 until 1993, and then served as principal of Taylor Academy until 1995. Jefferson-Jenkins was a vice president of Junior Achievement starting in 1995 and was promoted to a vice president in 1996; she left the organization in 1998. the suit was settled in 2002. After leaving Junior Achievement she went on to work for the National Center for Education and the Economy, the University of Colorado at Denver and retired from Douglas County Schools Colorado. She now works with the Center for Racial Justice in Education.

Jefferson-Jenkins joined the League of Women Voters in 1982, and she led a 1996 "Get Out the Vote" campaign, which registered more than 50,000 voters nationally. She was the first woman of African descent to serve as president to the league. While Jefferson-Jenkins served as president, the league helped pass the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, which closed loopholes in campaign finance. She also spoke on the need for campaign finance, worked to increase voting using public awareness ads, sought to broaden participation in democracy, and established a means to increase membership in the League of Women Voters. In 2001, Jefferson-Jenkins moderated the Denver segment of a televised Town Hall meeting where Kofi Annan spoke to help people living in the United States better understand the role of the United Nation in fighting terrorism.

In 2014, she moved to North Carolina to work at the Hunt Institute. Since 2018 Jefferson-Jenkins has worked as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Awards and honors In 2001, Distinguished Alumni Award Civic Engagement – Cleveland State University, In 2010, Girl Scouts of Colorado named Jefferson-Jenkins one of eleven "Women of Distinction". In 2020, Jefferson-Jenkins became the third recipient of the Freedom Summer 1964 Award from Miami University Jefferson-Jenkins was the 2021 commencement speaker at Miami University She was also a recipient of the "Civic Leadership Award" from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

Selected publications