When Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Jenkins graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center in 2013, she had every intention of working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those plans went awry when one of her mentors forgot to forward a letter of recommendation with her application.
While discussing her CDC setback with a graduate friend, an Air Force microbiologist, the option of military service came up.
“Out of the blue she said ‘oh, you should be in the Navy,’” Jenkins recalled.
Jenkins’ father had served as a Sailor in the U.S. Navy, and her grandfather, a retired Airman served in both the Navy and Air Force. While it wasn’t an avenue she’d previously considered, Jenkins visited a recruiter shortly after her friend’s suggestion and was sold on the idea of becoming a Navy microbiologist.
“The Navy was in my roots.” Jenkins explained, “I was interested in traveling to remote areas of the world, to learn about and experience different cultures, and use my area of expertise, infectious diseases, to help them however I could.”
A native of Brownsville, Texas, Jenkins comes from a family of engineers, however since the age of eight she has always had an interest for infectious disease.
"I cannot remember a time where I was not fascinated with germs and diseases, I was intrigued because we cannot see it or touch them,” she said.
After completing officer training in 2014, Jenkins arrived at her first duty station: Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, where she hit the ground running as the division officer for the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory.
This job would be her first exposure to the Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC)’s Naval Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory (NIDDL), where she learned of the clinical infectious disease reference laboratory, and its capabilities and support during the Ebola outbreak.
While assigned to the Peru-based Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) 6, (now NAMRU SOUTH), and later Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 6, Jenkins traveled around South America and the Indo-Pacific region working with diseases like dengue, zika, and a wide range of viral and bacterial diseases. Her work with the NEPMU-6’s mobile microbiology labs spanned global health engagements, humanitarian missions and work under security cooperation for the Indo-Pacific region.
Throughout her assignments with NAMRU-6 and NEPMU-6, Jenkins’ work involved sending samples to the NMRC NIDDL.
In 2021, Jenkins joined NMRC and currently serves as the department head of Diagnostics & Surveillance (DSD), part of the NIDDL. Shortly after arriving at NMRC, the virology program within NMRC’s Defense for Infectious Diseases Directorate (DDID) underwent restructuring. The department supports viral disease research and support, vector-borne surveillance, and the NIDDL clinical lab.
Jenkins looked forward to the changes to sustain and advance NIDDL’s diagnostic, reach-back support, and surveillance activities as the Navy’s primary clinical reference laboratory for emerging and non-emerging diseases.
Jenkins and her team conduct and provide infectious disease diagnostic support services for a panel of 37 infectious disease threats of military importance including SARS-CoV-2, Lyme, Mpox, and dengue. NIDDL’s efforts serve DoD frontline providers and public health professionals in support of force health protection for all active-duty military members and Military Health System beneficiaries.
Currently, Jenkins’ team is also looking into new approaches to understand the immunological profiles of emerging diseases and evaluating antivirals and other prophylactics against viral diseases to support fleet health and readiness.
The NIDDL also provides an avenue for other laboratories and partners within the DoD to identify vectors, and the pathogens that are inside these vectors, to inform policymakers and the various regional combatant commands to assess health threats to service members.
"The work the NIDDL does is vital and critical," Jenkins said, ". I give props to our prior microbiologist and our current medical director, who put every effort into keeping the NIDDL’s mission going, as they are the only thing on the Navy side that we have as far as a clinical reference laboratory for infectious diseases.”
Jenkins advises anyone interested in the sciences, and in health medicine, to explore their interest early and often.
“You have to find your ‘why?’,” Jenkins explained. “What’s your reason for wanting to do this? Go do an internship and see what it’s like. Shadow the person you want to be, become them for the day and see if that’s what you’re passionate about.”
“It has to come from a place of passion and genuine interest,” Jenkins added. “That passion is how you advance the well-being of other people, of humanity.”
As for her decision to join the military, Jenkins has expressed appreciation for the avenues the Navy afforded her in her career.
“I’m proud and honored to serve in the Military,” said Jenkins, “and to have worked alongside stakeholders such as the CDC, the World Health Organization, USAID [United States Agency for International Development, PAHO [Pan American Health Organization] and our external partners in the infectious disease domain. It's given me the opportunity to do much more than what I could have achieved in the civilian sector.”
Under Jenkins, the lab has received praise from outside and within the enterprise. Dr. Kevin Porter, former director of NMRC’s Defense Infectious Diseases Directorate spoke glowingly of her tenure.
“Lt. Cmdr. Jenkins’ leadership as head of the Diagnostics and Surveillance Department, and especially as director of the NIDDL, is exceptional,” Porter said. “Providing reliable, state-of-the-art and timely diagnostics is critical to our force health protection mission to mitigate the debilitating infectious diseases threats to deployed military personnel.”
Jenkins was recently awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for her end of tour; she will be going on to the Armed Forces Radiobiology Institute in Bethesda, where she will be serving as the deputy director of the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program.
“My time at NMRC has been surprisingly wonderful. I had the opportunity to work with extremely intelligent, motivated, curiosity-driven and committed individuals to advance Navy Medicine. In my journey of continuous learning and growth, I’m thankful for my time at NMRC as it impacted my career in such a positive way,” Jenkins said. For her own part, Jenkins has expressed the intention to make the Navy, and Navy Medicine into her career, “I haven’t gotten bored yet!"
NMRC is engaged in a broad spectrum of activities, from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology and behavioral sciences.