National Restaurant Association
Senior Vice President, Communications

Topics: Strategic issue management, communications, media

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Sue Hensley National Restaurant Association Download high-resolution photo

Sue Hensley is the Senior Vice President Communications for the National Restaurant Association. In this role, Hensley oversees the Association’s efforts to promote the restaurant industry to elected officials, opinion leaders, and the media. Her work includes outreach and communication spanning the spectrum of the restaurant-and-foodservice industry—from the innovators in the kitchen and the industry’s entrepreneurs, to families dining out for the evening.

Before joining the National Restaurant Association, Hensley served as Associate Administrator of the Small Business Administration. In this position, she was responsible for the Office of Communications and Public Liaison—managing the agency’s communications staff, authoring communication plans, and acting as the chief spokesperson for the SBA.

Hensley also worked in the Office of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2001 to 2003, where she served as a deputy assistant secretary. While at the Department of Labor, Hensley managed the Department’s communications staff and served as the lead spokesperson for the Department.

Hensley also spent several years on Capitol Hill as a communications director in the U.S. Senate and a press secretary in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Her journalism and communications background began with work as a news producer for WCIA-TV in Champaign, Ill.; news director at WPGU-Radio in Champaign; and news anchor at WRMN/WJKL-Radio in Elgin, Ill.

A native of Palatine, Illinois, Hensley holds a bachelors degree from the University of Illinois in Broadcast Journalism. She is also active in the International Radio and Television Society and has spent time working with media overseas through the International Republican Institute.

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