Renée R. Jenkins, MD, FAAP* 2008-2009 Immediate Past President American Academy of Pediatrics

[ Download JPG image ]

Renée R. Jenkins, MD, FAAP, of Washington, DC, is the 2008-2009 Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The AAP is the nation's largest pediatric organization, with a membership of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists.

Dr. Jenkins took office as president at the October 2007 AAP National Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco, Calif. This was the first time the AAP elected an African American, and she was the fifth woman president since the AAP’s founding in 1930.

Dr. Jenkins is professor and the immediate past chair, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University and adjunct professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University, both in Washington, DC. She graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed her residency at Jacobi Hospital in New York City. After completing a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Montefiore Hospital in New York, Dr. Jenkins started an adolescent medicine program at Howard. In 1994, Dr. Jenkins was appointed Department Chair, and during her tenure directed the departmental training program and practice plan.

Dr. Jenkins has served on many AAP task forces and committees, including the Committee on Adolescence, the Task Forces on Pediatric AIDS and Reimbursement, and the Committee on Federal Government Affairs. She chaired the Committee on Community Health Services. Dr. Jenkins is a past-president of the AAP Washington, DC, Chapter.

Previously, Dr. Jenkins was president of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, and chair of the Pediatric Section of the National Medical Association. Dr. Jenkins is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Pediatric Society, and the Academic Pediatric Association. Dr. Jenkins is the current principal investigator of the Washington-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities in collaboration with Children’s National Medical Center and the Pediatrics department’s Division of Primary Care, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Dr. Jenkins is married to Mr. Charles Woodard, and their daughter Kristinza is a pathology resident at the University of Washington and the mother of Jay M. Giese II, their newest grandchild.

*FAAP - Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics