Peggy Jenkins, Ph.D., RN, CNE Senior Assistant Dean of Academic Operations/Assistant Dean for MS Programs. Dr. Jenkins assumed role of Senior Assistant Dean for Academic Operations November 2021. She oversees a team of Office of Academic Programs staff. As Assistant Dean Graduate MS Programs in the University of Colorado College of Nursing, she collaborates with Specialty Directors of seven nurse practitioner programs and in addition, CNS, Nurse Midwife, Informatics, Leadership, Veteran’s Military Health programs. The dynamic Specialty Director team demonstrated agility and creativity during the 2020 pandemic when clinical placements for students shut down. Through innovative pedagogies and interprofessional collaborations including expansion of tele-health and simulation, the College of Nursing gradated 252 advanced practice nurses who entered the workforce during the pandemic.

Dr. Jenkins is also Associate Professor, former Specialty Director of the i-LEAD MS Leadership program, an innovative online curriculum originally developed by Dr. Amy Barton through grant funding to expand graduate education to diverse, rural students in Colorado. In 2017, Dr. Jenkins developed a DNP Health System Leadership track and had 100% graduation rate in 2020 for the first cohort of students.

Prior to academic roles, she held formal leadership positions at Craig Hospital, a center of excellence for spinal cord and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, and with a national healthcare alliance, where she facilitated healthcare systems across the country to improve quality outcomes and save multi millions of dollars in non-salary cost.

Dr. Jenkins’ dissertation work included creating an innovative method to measure the value of nursing care per patient episode in the acute care setting (Journal of Nursing Administration, 2014; Sigma grant). She collaborated with a national workgroup focused on nursing value (AHRQ PA-15-147; Internal Data2Value) and was part of several publications and international presentations (Nursing Economics 2018, 2019, 2020; JONA 2018, 2019).

She was PI for Action Research using voice of students to craft intraprofessional doctoral education for nursing leaders (ALSN grant; Advances in Nursing Science, 2020; JONA, 2021). In 2020, she was co-investigator for a study on graduate student stressors during COVID pandemic (Journal of Professional Nursing, 2020; Nurse Educator, 2021).

She is an active member and leader in several international professional nursing organizations including Sigma Theta Tau, Association for Leadership Science in Nursing, National League for Nursing, Western Institute of Nursing, AONL, ANA, AACN OLN, NONPF, and IPNSS.