Dr. Jenkins joined the Department of Health and Human Physiology as an Assistant Professor in August of 2020 and was promoted to Associate Professor (with Tenure) in July 2024. Prior to joining UI, Dr. Jenkins received his PhD in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then spent four years as an Assistant Professor with appointments in Kinesiology and Nutritional Sciences at Oklahoma State University. Overall, his recent research program has focused on understanding the physiological and bio-behavioral pathways by which early life stress (adverse childhood experiences) promote the early development of cardiovascular and metabolic disease and to identify interventions that can mitigate this risk, and also understanding the utility of resistance training as an exercise modality to improve cardiometabolic health in aging adults. Dr. Jenkins is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (conferred by the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health). In addition, he has served on the national Research Committees for both the National Strength and Conditioning Association (2017-2020) and American Heart Association (2020-Present), as well as on several subcommittees for the AHA, including the Open Science Committee (2020-2021), Research Portfolio Management Sub-committee (2019-2022), and the Sexual Harassment Task Force (2021-2022). 

A list of his publications can be found at his NCBI My Bibliography page, or on his Google Scholar page.