Retired Navy Commander Develops Next-Level Leadership

Published March 19, 2025

U.S. Naval Commander Alexa Forsyth Jenkins left a lengthy list of accomplishments and commendations in her wake when she retired from an impressive 20-year career in the Navy in September 2024. Three months later, the Johns Hopkins MS in Organizational Leadership graduate collected her second master’s degree and began charting her next adventure – this one on dry land.

Jenkins, who recently landed a role as a lead solution engineer at Salesforce, traces her destiny of leadership to the seventh grade. All these years later, the self-described “clumsy, lanky, unassuming theater nerd, who read a lot of books” can recall that legacy-defining moment with her signature wit and humor.

“My class was reading William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, and the teacher asked who the class would choose to be their leader if they became stranded on an island,” Jenkins recounted. “My classmates picked me. ‘Alexa would be telling everyone here is the plan. She would keep us in line. She wouldn’t play favorites, and she would be fair.’ I thought that was pretty impressive that a bunch of seventh graders, at one of the most hormonal times of their lives, would say that I was sane and grounded and probably wouldn’t get us killed,” she quipped.

“Still, I don’t think anyone would have thought that I would go to the Naval Academy,” she said. “Maybe my father did, because he always taught me that if you want to complain about your country then you should serve your country. My mother thought I was going to be a communications major and end up on Broadway. Fun fact: Jazz hands are not a transferable skill to command war ships!”

She took her father’s advice. Receiving a Congressional appointment to Annapolis from her home state of California, Jenkins soaked in everything that the Navy had to offer.

“I was enthralled that the Academy was a place where 4,000 people wake up at the same time, put on the same clothes, have the same goals, and they are all dedicated to be servant leaders for their country,” she said. “I was in awe to learn how many people, including my future husband, really did want to serve their country. I loved the Naval Academy. It gave me a wonderful background in critical thinking, leadership, and organizational teams, and a stellar education. I have always gravitated toward leadership positions. I knew I wasn’t the smartest person in the room, but I always knew who was, and who could provide the answer. There are not many 22-year-olds who, on day one on the job, are in charge of the lives of 25 people and all sort of equipment on billion-dollar ships.”

When Jenkins entered the Academy, she was among the then 12.5-percent of female plebes. She graduated with a degree in English and a minor in Spanish, and she took plenty of courses in weapons systems engineering, electrical engineering, naval architecture, and three levels of calculus. Over two decades, she rose through the ranks and captained three different ships – patrol ships the USS Tornado (PC-14) and the USS Chinook (PC-9), and the USS Carney (DDG-64), a guided-missile destroyer.

“The military taught me that I was capable of so much more than I thought I was,” she said. “When you have the drive and commitment to keep trying and learning, and when you stay curious, there is really nothing you can’t figure out. I have never been a person who let small failures stop me from getting where I wanted to go. I think when I was in command, my people knew that they came first, above everything else. Because to me, without the people, the ship is just a big hunk of metal. And yes, it has all the bells and whistles, but without the people, it doesn’t go anywhere or shoot anything. People are the greatest weapon we have. I saw sailors stay down in an engine room for 19 hours straight in 106 degrees to fix things to keep a ship afloat, and they did it without batting an eye. When you care about people and they feel valued, they are much more likely to do crazy, impossible things. I think my junior officers and sailors would describe me as quirky, yes, but caring, for sure.”

Knowing that retirement was on the horizon, Jenkins, who also completed an MBA at the University of North Carolina, enrolled in the JHU organizational leadership program in May of 2023 and completed her degree in December 2024.

“I looked at a bunch of programs before I decided on Johns Hopkins,” Jenkins said. “I wanted to make sure that I was going to get the best education possible, and I wanted to pursue something that was going to add value to what I could offer to a corporation after I left the Navy. I felt like the faculty at Hopkins were a neck above. I liked the flexibility that the program provided since I had a small child at home and military obligations. I loved delving into change management, crisis management, team dynamics, and many more topics.”

Throughout her life, Jenkins admittedly has worked for some “rock star” leaders who were authentically themselves and who used their individual strengths to bring out the best in their teams. She also encountered these attributes in her JHU faculty.

“I felt like my best self while working for those people,” she said. “Some of them were introverts, some were technical experts, some were charismatic, but all of them made me better. My Hopkins professors made me want to try harder. In my own leadership roles, I have always tried to be an authentic leader, with aspects of servant and transformational leadership styles, and I think it is really important for teams to have safe places for conflict. A lot of great things can emerge from conflict, for change, good change.”

Perhaps the best-selling point of the JHU program for Jenkins, though, was the interactions she had with her classmates.

“I think this is what Hopkins does better than most other programs that I have seen,” she said. “Even though the classes were asynchronous, I knew these people. I celebrated their wins with them. It was not just in the online classroom. It was on my phone and on video calls. They are folks who will be in my life forever, and I can’t wait to walk with them in graduation in May.

“I am really grateful for the opportunity that Hopkins gave me,” she said. “I love the program. I would tell others to definitely apply and hope you get accepted. A Hopkins degree will add value to your life and to the lives of the people who are impacted by the leadership skills that you learn there.”