Public Speaking

Instructor

Keith B. Jenkins

Vice President & Associate Provost for Diversity & Inclusion

Rochester Institute of Technology

Whatever the arena—professionally, in family, in ministry or in community—Keith’s desire, first and foremost, is to serve. Dr. Keith B. Jenkins, Professor of Communication in the School of Communication, is the Vice President & Associate Provost for Diversity & Inclusion at Rochester Institute of Technology. Keith, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, received his B.A. in Communication from the University of Arkansas and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Communication from the Florida State University. Since joining RIT in 1992 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Dr. Jenkins has also served as RIT Faculty-in-Residence (1993 – 1995), RIT’s first Assistant Provost for Diversity (1999 – 2002), Director of Undergraduate Degree Programs in the School of Communication (2011 – 2016), and Interim Vice President and Associate Provost, Division for Diversity & Inclusion (2016 – 2017). He was also privileged to establish RIT’s Multicultural Center for Academic Success and the School of Communication’s Journalism Degree program. Jenkins is the recipient of many awards. Among the RIT awards are the 2010 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching, the 2005 Isaac L. Jordan Pluralism Award, the 2004 RIT Diversity Trailblazer Award, the 1993-94 Provost’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the 1996 and 1997 Higher Education Opportunity Program “Community Professor” awards which recognize a professor who has made a difference in the lives of HEOP students at RIT, and NTID’s (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) 1995 Pluralism Award. Jenkins’ scholarly publications and presentations center around studies in intercultural communication, political and visual rhetoric, and the rhetoric of gospel song. Most recently, the focus of his research has been on pragmatism and the rhetoric of inclusion in Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign.