Timothy Daniel Jenkins, AB ’88, MD ’92
Thank you to the Harvard Medical School Alumni Council and School leadership for considering my nomination for the position of vice president of the Council. Over the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving on the Alumni Council.
When I initially put forward my candidacy three years ago, I could not have foreseen the global challenges that would so profoundly affect HMS and Harvard University. Throughout my time on the Council, I have witnessed the school’s principled and effective responses to rapidly evolving circumstances. The mission and vision have remained unwavering, with students, faculty, and alumni consistently supported by compassionate, transparent leadership.
Under Dean Daley’s guidance, HMS has continued to advance medical science, clinical practice, and public health on a worldwide scale. Council meetings have been enriched by diverse viewpoints, and I have contributed my insights as a health care systems leader and committed advocate for both HMS and Harvard University. It is essential for HMS to preserve its standing as a premier institution in medical education and research, sustaining its influence on global health and physician training. If chosen to be the next vice president of the Alumni Council, I will dedicate myself to supporting the ongoing progress of HMS and strengthening the Council’s role in representing our distinguished alumni.
Timothy Daniel Jenkins, AB ’88, MD ’92, received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1966, and his family moved to Tennessee shortly thereafter. Jenkins graduated from Henry County High School in rural Paris, Tennessee, in 1984. His first experience with Harvard and the Cambridge/Boston area was during his time at Harvard Summer School at age 16. He was thoroughly enthralled by the school and its vibrant academic and cultural community. Jenkins returned to Harvard College as an undergraduate, earning his AB in biology, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1988. During those formative years, he became interested in medicine and frequently travelled to the HMS campus, where he performed thesis research in neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital.
After graduating from HMS in 1992, he completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in gastroenterology, both at Massachusetts General Hospital, in 1998. While training at Massachusetts General Hospital, he was concurrently a Resident Tutor at Harvard College’s Winthrop House, leading the premedical committee and supporting hundreds of premedical students with their medical school applications. Nearly all of those students went on to become physicians themselves. Following the fellowship, Jenkins spent one year as an instructor in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Division of Gastroenterology. In 1999, to live closer to family, he accepted a position in California with Kaiser Permanente (KP) San Bernardino County as a staff gastroenterologist.
At KP, in addition to his clinical practice, he served as a faculty member in various KP residency programs, led quality improvement in his specialty, and was ultimately appointed chief of gastroenterology in 2007. During a nine-year period as chief, he oversaw the department’s growth in size and complexity, the addition of gastroenterology services for a second new KP hospital in San Bernardino County, and the recruitment of expert colleagues to deliver advanced endoscopic services.
In 2016, he was appointed area medical director and chief of staff for KP San Bernardino County, which is a leadership role he continues today. Jenkins has executive oversight for the medical care of nearly 700,000 KP members in San Bernardino County, as well as for tertiary services for over one million patients across Southern California’s Inland Empire. Jenkins and his leadership team of eight assistant medical directors and over one hundred chiefs, physician directors, and other physician leaders support ambulatory and inpatient operations for all clinical departments staffed by over one thousand two hundred physicians and several thousand staff.
During his tenure, KP San Bernardino County has grown to become the largest KP area in Southern California. Jenkins has served on the Harvard Medical School Alumni Council as an elected representative from the seventh pentad for a three-year term beginning in 2023. During that time, he has been an active participant and contributor to the Alumni Council’s business, and he has also served as a member of the Awards Working Group from 2023 to 2025 and as its chair beginning in 2025.
Along with his full-time administrative position at Kaiser Permanente, he continues to practice gastroenterology and maintain board certification in both gastroenterology and internal medicine, bringing him tremendous professional satisfaction. Jenkins is married to Harvard alumna Valerie Tonnu Jenkins, DMD ’93, and they are proud parents of son Spencer and daughter Natalie.