Elizabeth Blankenship’s ’75 Continued Commitment To Supporting Nursing Students
As the UCA Now campaign comes to a close, the university reflects on the success of the campaign by recognizing those who contributed to its success. Elizabeth Blankenship ’75, a University of Central Arkansas alumna, is one of those contributors.
Blankenship is an entrepreneur, innovator, nurse and caregiver whose career spans more than 40 years with dedicated service to the creation and support of quality health care and assisted living facilities for seniors.
Blankenship attributes much of her success to her time at UCA. With a desire to support aspiring nurses, Blankenship, along with her daughters and fellow UCA alumnae, Ashley M. Blankenship ’97 and Gretchen E. Humphreys ’93, generously gifted $215,500 to the Integrated Health Sciences Building. Blankenship’s contribution to the university helped create the Integrated Health Sciences Building’s Maternal Child Simulation space.
The Maternal Child Simulation is designed to build knowledge and confidence in students, preparing them for working with real patients in the field. The space allows students to simulate birth and birth abnormalities, better preparing students entering into the field of maternal nursing.
“Having the dedicated space has allowed the faculty and staff to increase the physical, psychological and conceptual fidelity of simulated experiences,” said Dr. Nancy Reese, dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. “The added realism allows students to immerse themselves into simulated scenarios which maximizes student learning outcomes.”
Nelson Omolo, a senior nursing major, is just one of the many students who have positively benefited from the simulation space.
“I believe that the simulation space has been a huge benefit to the school of nursing. It really is nice to be able to practice in maternity simulations before dealing with the real thing. I helped deliver nearly ten babies this semester, and I never questioned if I belonged or if I was capable. I believe that is all because of the maternal child simulation space building that confidence in me,” Omolo said.
“It gives me great pride to be associated with UCA,” said Blankenship. “We’ve made so many great accomplishments over the years: the Health and Behavioral Sciences Building and the new Windgate Arts Center, just to name a few. We’ve had some great successes, and I feel like the UCA Now campaign will just put us over the top.”
When looking back at her education, Blankenship doubted her ability to complete her nursing degree after her husband transferred from Wichita, Kansas, to the Little Rock Air Force Base. However, Blankenship transferred into an innovative program known as Cone Health which allowed her to complete her initial nursing degree at the university in 1975.
“If it had not been for UCA and the Cone Health degree completion program, I probably would not have been able to complete my degree. It’s one of the reasons I think so much of UCA,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship, a continued advocate for the School of Nursing, serves as a member of the UCA College of Health and Behavioral Sciences Advisory Board, the UCA Foundation Board, served as a member of the UCA Now campaign Steering Committee and was named a 2019 UCA Distinguished Alumni. As an advocate for quality senior care, Blankenship has served on numerous statewide boards and committees including the Governor’s Alzheimer’s Task Force.
Now retired, Blankenship continues to support the university through philanthropy. “I feel like nursing has been very good to me, and I just want to support it, especially for those who need a little help,” Blankenship said.