In the early 1960s Elkins served as assistant pastor to Martin Luther King Jr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

In the early 1970s Elkins switched career paths and became an American Public Health and International Development scholar at Columbia University and then worked with the Population Council and USAID.

In response to Albany Police Chief Laurie Pritchett's closing of white-only parks following integration efforts, Reverend Elkins (who was Caucasian)[8] teamed up with black Reverend Joseph Smith and William Kunstler to lead an integrated group to Albany's black-only Carver Park to swim and play tennis.

After his civil rights and ministerial work, Reverend Elkins entered the doctoral program in Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he studied under demographer Donald J. Bogue[14] and published papers together.

Following dissertation work in Bogota, Colombia, Dr. Elkins became a research scientist at Columbia University in the Department of Public Health.