Denise’s professional career has been focused on supporting underserved communities in the New Jersey/NYC area. Denise has over 15 years of experience in providing emergency medical services to urban communities. Additionally, she has dedicated time to providing mental health treatment and crisis response in non-profit healthcare settings that serve predominantly low-income communities. Denise holds both a BA in Psychology and Women & Gender Studies and an MSW, including a certification in Human Services Management, with a concentration in Global Social Work and Public Policy from Rutgers University, NJ. Her concentrations were Global Social Work and Immigrant Populations, Public Policy, and Community Development.During her time with Sadie Nash, she developed programming centered on healing justice and wellness, in response to the pandemic, and has created structures to support wellness practices that are embedded across the organization for both participants and staff. She is deeply passionate about advocating for community members and those that directly provide services to them. She is now the current Senior Operations Manager at Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a non-profit that provides leadership development and social justice education to young women and gender-expansive youth of color.