{"id":10496,"date":"2016-04-28T17:20:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T23:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=10496"},"modified":"2016-04-29T13:15:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T19:15:49","slug":"jena-hausmann-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2016\/04\/jena-hausmann-93\/","title":{"rendered":"Jena Hausmann \u201993"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CC-BUL-APRIL2016-36-PeakProf-Hausman\"<\/a>

JENA HAUSMANN \u201993 interacting with children at Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado. Photo courtesy of Children’s Hospital Colorado<\/p><\/div>\n

Jena Hausmann \u201993<\/strong>, knew one thing for sure when she graduated from high school: Whatever she did with her life, it had to matter.<\/p>\n

That mantra eventually propelled her through two decades in healthcare administration and in May 2015, to a top job as president and CEO of Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado, ranked the fifth best children\u2019s hospital in the nation in 2015-16 by U.S. News & World Report<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been looking at the East and West Coasts. The traditional list,\u201d the Kansas native says, even though Colorado College was in the neighboring state. \u201cWhen I found CC, it took me all of 30 seconds to say that\u2019s where I wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hausmann was attracted to CC\u2019s liberal arts program, small class size, and the Block Plan\u2019s deep immersion in one topic at a time, she says. \u201cIt was so intriguing in its uniqueness.\u201d<\/p>\n

To lay the groundwork for making a difference in the world, Hausmann decided to pursue a political science major. She believed that public office was her ticket to provoking change.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight away at CC, I was thinking, solving problems,\u201d she says. \u201cI read. I wrestled with different points of view. You\u2019ve got to have discipline for that. And there was a problem-solving approach there that I think I carry with me today. I think it was created in those CC classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a junior-year internship in Washington, D.C., convinced her she was wrong about politics. Hausmann surmised that politicians, even those on a national stage, were simply unable to effect the kind of fundamental change that was her aim.<\/p>\n

As she started her senior year in 1992, healthcare was a hot topic \u2014 thanks, in part, to presidential debates between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. So she began to follow the issue through the lens of political science. Hausmann also saw the subject from a personal vantage point: Her grandfather was wading through the healthcare system as he battled cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an inhumane way to die,\u201d Hausmann remembers thinking. \u201cIt was a broken system. How do leaders in this field allow this to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science, she earned a master\u2019s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

She chose that route because, as she says, \u201cI\u2019d seen how much of an effect a leader is going to have on the healthcare experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, Hausmann was named one of the 12 \u201crising healthcare management stars\u201d by Modern Healthcare<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare, the industry, is in an extreme transition,\u201d Hausmann says. \u201cThe political pressures, all the dynamics of trying to transform healthcare in this country. It\u2019s a time when you have to approach it like a village. For me, that was a really important skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Colorado College was built on that notion: think, reason, and work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we would learn, particularly in political science, was extraordinary,\u201d Hausmann says. \u201cWe\u2019d go read Plato or Hobbes or Locke or whatever. Then we\u2019d get together as a class \u2026 and talk it out. \u2026 That environment took my natural tendency to work with others, to challenge and debate, and fostered it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much teamwork at CC. It really helped create the fabric of how I like to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

To current and future students, she says, \u201cI would tell them to absolutely cherish the time they have at CC. \u2026 Don\u2019t view it as four years that you check off the list and say, \u2018Now what?\u2019 There\u2019s so much to learn about relationships, about life there. There\u2019s so much more than the content you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jena Hausmann \u201993, knew one thing for sure when she graduated from high school: Whatever she did with her life, it had to matter. That mantra eventually propelled her through two decades in healthcare administration and in May 2015, to a top job as president and CEO of Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado, ranked the fifth best…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[17,63],"class_list":["post-10496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-2016","tag-alumni-profiles","tag-peak-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10731,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496\/revisions\/10731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}