Brian Hensel is a 2015-2016 RJI Fellow and an assistant teaching professor in the University of Missouri’s Department of Health Management and Informatics.

Hensel has 15 years of experience as a health care executive, which included responsibility for a range of post-acute, long-term, and end-of-life care services within vertically integrated, hospital-based health systems. He began his career in health administration after completing his master’s in 1987 in the University of Missouri Health Services Management program (now Health Management and Informatics). In 2001, he returned to Missouri to complete a Ph.D. focused in health communication from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, followed by a National Library of Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship in Health Informatics from 2005 to 2008 in Missouri’s HMI department.

As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow, Hensel worked in the office of Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia from 2008 to 2009, where he helped develop palliative care and advance planning legislation within the Accountable Care Act, and health information technology legislation within the Recovery Act. After this he served for four years as assistant professor of health services administration in the Beacom School of Business at the University of South Dakota.

Hensel returned to the University of Missouri HMI Department in January 2014. In addition to teaching and supporting grant and consulting projects, he is interested in bridging initiatives between health administration and the School of Journalism, which led him to pursue an RJI Fellowship.

He resides in Columbia with his family. His wife and two daughters all work in education (elementary and secondary). He enjoys movies, is a bit of a foodie, and considers himself a formidable ping-pong player.