Elena Jenkins, who is currently studying in UMSL’s DNP program, is also an artist and a co-owner of The Drip Community Coffee House. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)
Elena Jenkins’ passions for art and nursing have always been intertwined. Painting became a way to fill her newfound free time when her daughters headed off to college and a form of stress relief while working as a labor and delivery nurse manager during the COVID-19 pandemic. But her captivating portraits – many of which are on display at The Drip Community Coffee House in St. Louis, which she co-owns with partner LaTosha Baker – are also a form of storytelling inspired by her work in labor and delivery, covering impactful themes including the #MeToo movement and maternal health for Black mothers. Jenkins recently wrapped up her first year in UMSL’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program on the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner track, putting her one step closer to her dream of opening her own birth center.
Jenkins’ paintings, such as “Erasing Innocence,” cover themes including the #MeToo movement and maternal health for Black mothers.
1. What inspires your art?
I love portraits. I’m always intrigued by people’s stories, and I feel like you can really tell stories through people’s eyes and the looks on their faces. I like to incorporate a lot of symbolism within the paintings. For example, I’ve done paintings on the history of Black women in obstetrics – those that have advocated, those that have been affected and one of the moms that died during the pandemic from not being heard – and they’re surrounded by HeLa cells, which grow and multiply, because it’s really about the lessons that we’ve learned and where we can go.
2. What has your experience been like int he DNP program?
UMSL has been amazing. So much of the program has been applicable to helping me move forward on the journey to the birth center in ways that I never imagined. I just finished a leadership class, and I never imagined how much information I would have that would be so helpful in envisioning what this looks like and growing who I am as a leader.
3. Why do you want to open a birth center?
Missouri really struggles with maternal health, just like the rest of the country. There are no options between home births and hospital births, like a freestanding birth center, and there’s a real need for that. I believe that women need to be empowered to be able to have their birth the way that they want and to have the ability to choose a low-risk, low- intervention option.
4. Why are birth centers so important?
When you have a midwife model of care, the rate of C-sections goes drastically down in comparison to hospital births. The rate of preterm delivery goes down. Rates of breastfeeding are much higher. Women feel empowered to be able to choose how they labor. General satisfaction with care and feeling like you have that body autonomy is so much more prevalent in the birth center model, and that’s what research has shown.
5. How do your passions for art and nursing fit together?
I saw them on dual paths; I never wanted to give up either one, so one inspires the other. My pieces are very thought-provoking with all the symbolism, so I get lots of questions about what they mean. I think I’m bringing awareness in all of the art that I do, because it is inspired by my nursing career. It’s a passion of mine that I always love talking about, and that’s where the art plays into that.
This story was originally published in the fall 2024 issue of UMSL Magazine. If you have a story idea for UMSL Magazine, email magazine@umsl.edu.
