Jodi Jinks

Community Learning and Engagement Specialist

Jodi Jinks has taken a circuitous journey to social work. She began as an actor, then entered the academic arena where she eventually held the title of the Mary Lou Lemon Endowed Professor for Under-Represented Voices at Oklahoma State University. She created a devised, autobiographical performance program called ArtsAloud in 2008, and instituted programming in numerous prisons and jails over the course of a decade. Additionally, ArtsAloud facilitated autobiographical performances with the LGBTQIA+ community and adults with mental developmental differences. During this period, she was asked to speak at the TEDx conference at OSU, published a chapter in Performing New Lives by Jonathan Shailor, and won the College of Arts & Science Community Engagement award at Oklahoma State. After the pandemic, Jodi returned to St. Louis, the city of her childhood, to pursue her interest in the betterment of DOC residents. Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities located in the Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center was the nonprofit that lured her back after a forty-year hiatus from St. Lou. Jodi is thrilled to be the first Community Learning & Engagement Specialist at Keyway. She is giving voice to those who often go unheard in a new way now.

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