Bennett completed his pediatrics residency and earned his medical degree, both at SIU School of Medicine (1994, 1991). He earned his bachelor’s from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington (1987). He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and a junior fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. A native of Decatur, Bennett and his wife, Dr. Tara Zook Bennett, an obstetrics and gynecology physician in Springfield, have one son.