Jean J. Schensul is a medical anthropologist and senior scientist at The Institute for Community Research, in Hartford, Connecticut.
She has made notable contributions to the field of applied anthropology, with her work on structural interventions to health disparities leading to the development of new organizations, community research partnerships, and community/university associations.
Schensul’s work has been dedicated to community-based research on topics such as senior health, education, and substance abuse, among others.
Schensul helped to create the research and training infrastructure at the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, Connecticut, an organization she served as associate director for from 1978-1987.
Through her work with community-based approaches to service delivery and social change, Schensul is notable for her development and evaluation of multilevel interventions as well as her work on developing and furthering participatory research[7] in the context of dynamic systems change theory.