In the spring of 2006, Jamison Dorsey was featured on the cover of a magazine. In the photo, she's about seven years old, wearing bright purple pants, a furry pink winter coat, and neon pink gloves. She has a twinkle in her eye and a big smile on her face, and she's holding the hand of her mother, Coretta Jenerette, who is dressed in more muted tones.
The two are standing in the courtyard of Branford College, in the heart of the Yale campus, and looking off into the distance.
The magazine was "Yale Nursing Matters," which featured Jenerette, then a postdoctoral fellow at Yale School of Nursing (YSN), for a story about training the next generation of nurse scientists.
"Looking back at the magazine, I really understood the significance of what it meant to see my mom as a role model," Dorsey says now. "And to see how she took this leap of faith as a first-gen student from a rural community trying something new."
Two decades years later, Dorsey is having a full-circle moment as she prepares to graduate from the same nursing school herself on May 18. She was even selected to represent her 174 classmates as one of the school's three marshals during commencement.
"In many ways, this moment reminds me of something I reflected on years ago during my postdoctoral fellowship at YSN: that our children are often watching us more closely than we realize," says Jenerette. "At the time, I was committed to improving the lives of individuals living with sickle cell disease and advancing compassionate, patient-centered care. I never imagined those experiences would also quietly shape my daughter's future as a nurse."
Originally from rural South Carolina, the family lived in the New Haven area for three years while Jenerette completed her fellowship. As a YSN fellow, she worked with a lot of patients suffering from the disease, and she helped them better advocate for themselves as they navigated pain management.
At the time, Jenerette told "Yale Nursing Matters" that she came to Yale not only for her own career advancement but also to enrich her daughter's life experiences and to show her another part of the world. Indeed, both women now look back fondly on the personal and professional growth they enjoyed when they were first part of the Yale community (especially a memorable trip to FAO Schwarz in New York City around Christmas).
For Jenerette, the culture of YSN offered a source of empowerment, especially as a single parent. At the time, she told the magazine, "YSN has offered me many opportunities and enabled me to find for myself the best way to develop as an academician and nurse scientist." Today, Jenerette is the Thelma Shobe Endowed Chair at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing where she's still working on improving health outcomes for individuals with sickle cell disease.
Eventually, Dorsey also felt the pull toward nursing. From an early age, she knew she wanted to work in health care, but she initially thought she'd end up going to dental school. It wasn't until she took a class as a college undergraduate that she had her own aha moment. The class was called "Supporting the Childbearing Family," and it was taught by a nurse midwife. Through the class, Dorsey became trained as a volunteer birth doula and gained experience on the labor and delivery floor.
And she witnessed firsthand the disparities experienced by so many parents during childbirth, especially maternal health disparities for Black mothers.
Once she became a birth doula, knew she wanted to segue into nursing like her mom. Her mom has a famous saying, she likes to joke: "All roads lead to nursing." When she started looking at nursing programs herself, Jamison thought back to her time at Yale Nursing School, where both she and her mother had been received with open arms years ago.
"I remembered just how community-oriented and supportive it felt," said Dorsey, who is now 27. "All these memories came back to me, and I thought this is like a second home for me. It was meant to be."
Once at YSN, Dorsey immersed herself in school activities, from serving as a student ambassador to being an orientation leader. Like her mom, she wanted to be able to advocate for other people, specifically her fellow students.
"As a student of color, you sometimes come to private institutions, and you don't see a lot of people that look like you or come from similar backgrounds," she said. "I always knew that I wanted to be a part of student leadership and be able to represent not only the underrepresented but everyone's voice."
Academically, she gravitated toward the nurse midwifery and women's health nurse practitioner curriculum. Midwifery care, she says, can improves birth outcomes for all populations. After graduation, she hopes to become a nurse-midwife serving underserved communities and addressing the Black maternal health crisis.
"Watching her grow into her own voice and identity as a nurse and an emerging leader and social justice advocate has been one of the greatest honors of my life," her mother said. "She is creating her own path while carrying forward values that matter to me and that are foundational to the essence of the nursing profession."
During commencement next week, Jenerette will return to the Yale campus, this time cheering on her daughter as she dons her cap and gown on the historic Old Campus.
For Dorsey, it's only right that her mother is there to celebrate this achievement.
"She really did open the doors for me and showed me what was possible," she said.
