Garry Jenkins

Garry William Jenkins is an American attorney, educator, and higher education administrator. He is the ninth president of Bates College, and the first Black person and first openly gay person to lead the institution.

Early life and education Garry W. Jenkins was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Leslie Jenkins, a high school teacher, and Garry C. Jenkins, a computer programmer. He grew up in South Orange, NJ with his parents and younger brother. In 1992, Jenkins graduated from Haverford College with a bachelor's degree with honors in political science. He then received a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School and an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1998.

Career

Business and legal career After graduating from Harvard, Jenkins clerked for Hon. Timothy K. Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. expanded experiential learning by creating new law clinics, improved student employment and bar passage outcomes, and increased resources for student mental health and wellbeing.

Honors and recognition Jenkins has received several awards and honors for excellence in scholarship in corporate law, nonprofit law, and global justice. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2019, and he is a fellow of the American Bar Association. For his academic administrative work, he earned a Diversity and Inclusion Award from the Minnesota Lawyer in 2022, and he was named to the Lawyers of Color “Power List” in 2020 and 2023. In 2023, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Albany Law School. He also received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award for his career success in higher education.

Jenkins has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the National Women’s Law Center; Haverford College; Equal Justice Works; the Law School Admission Council; the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, among others. He was chair the deans’ steering committee of the Association of American Law Schools. By gubernatorial appointment, he served as one of Minnesota’s commissioners to the Uniform Law Commission.

Bates College presidency In March 2023, Jenkins was announced as the ninth president of Bates College, succeeding Clayton Spencer who had been president since 2012. Jenkins became the first Black and openly gay person to lead the institution in its history. He assumed office on July 1, 2023. His inauguration was delayed by six months after the 2023 Lewiston shootings, where 18 people were killed.