She is Professor of Community Health at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing in Seattle, Washington where she teaches health policy, narrative medicine, and health humanities. She is also Adjunct Professor, UW School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies; and Affiliate Faculty, UW Simpson Center for the Humanities Certificate Programme in Public Scholarship. Ensign is Director of the University of Washington Doorway Project, an innovative community-campus partnership programme addressing youth homelessness in Seattle. During her Fulbright grant period she will be studying the ways in which empathy can be enhanced in nurses specifically for the care of homeless and marginalised populations.