Joli Jensen received her PhD in 1985 from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois. She has been a faculty member at the University of Virginia (1984-1986) and at the University of Texas at Austin (1986-1991). She joined the Faculty of Communication at the University of Tulsa in 1991, where she became Hazel Rogers Professor of Communication in 2005. She also founded and directs the TU Henneke Faculty Writing Center.

Jensen initially majored in biology and psychology at the University of Nebraska, and begin a neuroscience PhD program at the University of Illinois, before switching into journalism and media studies.