In 1990, Jenkins returned to Colorado, where he got the editor position at the Aspen Times. In 1995, he was named an editor of the international desk at National Public Radio, where he worked for the next fifteen years. Under Jenkins's leadership, correspondents of the radio station covered the wars in Kosovo, Chechnya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In 2005 the international desk at NPR was awarded the George Peabody Award. In November 2011, Loren Jenkins retired but continued to write as a freelancer.