Home

Biographical Data

Dr. Jinkins has been an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction with Tarleton State University – Central Texas since July of 2000. Her primary teaching load includes the first undergraduate reading course, Fundamentals of Reading, and the capstone six-hour combination reading course Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum and Implementing Reading Instruction. Dr. Jinkins also teaches all of the graduate level reading courses as well as the required reading courses on the TMATE program. In addition to these courses, she has taught the remaining reading courses and a variety of general education and curriculum courses.

Before coming to Tarletion, Dr. Jinkins served as a Program Associate at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, one of the ten regional research and development labs of the Department of Education. She has also served as a TEA monitor for the Department of District Effectiveness and Compliance. She has served as principal, assistant principal, grant writer, and program coordinator for public schools in Texas. She has also taught all grade levels from kindergarten through grade 12 including gifted, special education, and Title I programs as well as general education. Dr. Jinkins has created two schools; one high school program for drop-outs and at-risk students and the other a K-8 charter school in Austin.

In addition to her public school service, Dr. Jinkins has several publications including her most recent book The Character of Leadership, co-authored with her husband, Michael. Her research interests include reading acquisition, developing understandings of teaching and learning reading in pre-service teachers, facilitating principals in the development of faculties as learning communities, and effective instructional programs for diverse and at-risk learners.

She is mother to Jeremy and Jessica and servant to three dogs, Bonnie Belle, Shambles, and George. Her hobbies include needlepoint and cross-stitch, the piano, travel, and reading.