Kevin Jennings
| Kevin Jennings | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education | |
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In office July 6, 2009 – June 2011 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 8, 1963 Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
| Domestic partner | Jeff Davis |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University Teachers College, Columbia University Stern School of Business, New York University |
| Occupation | Educator, author, nonprofit executive |
| Awards | National Education Association (NEA)'s Virginia Uribe Award for Creative Leadership in Human Rights. |
| Website | www |
Kevin Brett Jennings (born May 8, 1963) is an American educator, author, and administrator. He was the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education from 2009-11. He is currently Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation.
Jennings holds degrees from Harvard University, Columbia University's Teachers College, and the Stern School of Business at New York University. He became a teacher and was named one of fifty "Terrific Teachers Making a Difference" by the Edward Calesa Foundation, he also came out as gay to his students. In 1990 he founded the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Education Network (later changed to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), which seeks to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 1992 he was named co-chair of the Education Committee of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in Massachusetts. Jennings has authored six books on gay rights and education, including one which won the Lambda Literary Award.
Jennings was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was the youngest of five children to Chester Henry, an itinerant Southern Baptist preacher, and Alice Verna (Johnson) Jennings. His family was poor and constantly moved around the South as his father sought a permanent post. His father died when Kevin was eight and the family was living in a Lewisville, North Carolina trailer park. From then on he grew up in a rural atmosphere that was intolerant of African Americans and gay people; several of his cousins and uncles were in the Ku Klux Klan. He was constantly taunted and bullied. "The first day of 10th grade I actually refused to go back to school because I simply wasn't going to go back to a place where I was bullied every day." He attended Paisley Magnet School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he did well academically, but was beaten by classmates for what they saw as effeminate behavior and attempted suicide after realizing he was gay. After he and his mother moved to Hawaii he graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu.
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