Denise's professional background is in the performing arts and has worked in the field of dance and theatre as a teacher, dancer, author and choreographer. In 1992 she founded Ohio Dance Theatre, a professional ballet based contemporary dance company serving as the company's Artistic Director for twenty five years. In 2014, motivated by her daughter Megan's experience as the spouse of a veteran with PTSD and TBI, (traumatic brain injury) Denise began working on a new project intended to bring attention to the ongoing struggles faced by families whose veterans suffer from invisible wounds of war. The result was an original multi-media theatrical performance piece entitled Blood Stripe, a Spouse's Story which premiered at Cleveland Public Theatre in the spring of 2015. In 2017 Hearts of Patriots was founded so that others would not have to endure similar struggles alone. In 2019 the multi-media theatrical performance became a film documentary of the same name. In 2020, the film received two film festival awards.