Jessica Jensen is a senior policy researcher at RAND and a national expert at the crossroads of disaster policy, practice, and research. For over two decades, she’s been helping emergency management as an emerging profession and distributed function rethink how we mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises—especially as disasters become more frequent, complex, and far-reaching.
Before joining RAND in 2023, Jensen spent 18 years shaping the academic field of emergency management at North Dakota State University, where she served as department head and an endowed full professor. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in emergency management—a rarity in the field.
Her research has long focused on improving emergency management systems across the full disaster cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. She’s given equal focus to bridging the gap between research and real-world impact—working to help scholarship result in smarter policy and more effective practice.
Jensen has partnered with a wide array of institutions, including FEMA, state and local emergency management agencies, the U.S. Congress, disaster nonprofits, and professional associations like the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA). Whether as a researcher, presenter, consultant, evaluator, or strategist, she brings deep expertise and a commitment to progress.
At RAND, her portfolio has expanded to include critical infrastructure resilience and energy security, safety and mitigation for the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army. She has also led several studies on the development and evaluation of artificial intelligence tools and applications.
B.S. in political science, California State University-Northridge; M.S. in emergency management, North Dakota State University; Ph.D. in emergency management, North Dakota State University
