Will Jenkins has more than fifteen years of communications and policy experience at the Obama White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, Congress, and international nonprofit organizations. In the field of creative media, Will has trained or advised hundreds of media makers on politics and policymaking through the Sundance Institute, the South by Southwest Festival, the Tribeca Film Institute, Warner Bros., FRONTLINE, MTV, and others. He was Policy Director for the Impact Film Festival at the 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and developed the American Film Institute’s first Political Bootcamp for Filmmakers in 2013. While in the nonprofit sector, Will worked on restorative justice, conflict resolution and community leadership initiatives. Will also founded the Democratic Communicators Network, which has organized training and mentoring for hundreds of political staffers for more than a decade.
Drawing on his experiences, he co-authored peer-reviewed articles in The Public Sector Innovation Journal and Media, Culture & Society. At the Center for Media and Social Impact, he co-authored a series of studies on films and public policy (When Movies Go To Washington: Documentary Films & Public Policy in the United States Vol. 1 and Movies & Grassroots Community Engagement: Documentary Films & State and Local Public Policy in the United States).