During the 2017 session, his first, Rep. Hansen continued his history of working on environmental and energy issues by sponsoring bills to protect health care workers from retaliation, encourage electricity storage technologies, increase the use of renewable energy, study power transmission options, increase water use efficiency, and allow homeowners to more easily invest in energy-efficient improvements to their homes.

Before beginning public service, Rep. Hansen was senior director at IHS Inc., a global research and consulting firm, and has nearly two decades of business experience in the clean technology sector, working with renewable energy and electricity companies, as well as governments at every level, to improve their operations. He also teaches energy economics and policy courses at the University of Colorado, and is already becoming a leading legislative voice on the energy and environmental issues facing the state of Colorado.

Rep. Hansen was co-chairman of the Colorado Energy Coalition and has served on the executive committees of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation and the Central City Opera. He has also volunteered for the Denver Kids Mentoring Program and the advisory board of the CU-Denver Business School.

He has a Ph.D in economic geography from Oxford and a master's in engineering from MIT. His bachelor's degree, also in engineering, is from Kansas State. He was raised in Goodland, near the Kansas-Colorado border.

Rep. Hansen and his wife, Ulcca, have two sons - Sachin and Ashwin. Both attend public school at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning.