Denise is an education program leader on a mission to reimagine instruction and the teacher role. With a special focus on the Science of Reading, multilingual learners, and educator development and retention, she synthesizes our partners’ hopes, dreams, and challenges into accessible visions, strategies, and systems.

Denise’s career has taken her from the classroom to nonprofit and school district program leadership and even into to higher education. She’s been proud to engage in this work for many years - before the term “Science of Reading” made it to state houses or school district strategic plans, she led the research-backed charge to revolutionize Teach For America Houston’s English Language Arts teacher preparation strategy across four school districts. She consulted with the Louisiana Department of Education and Imagine Learning to write their ELA Guidebooks curriculum and designed and facilitated professional learning for educators across various school systems state- wide. She then spent several years as an Assistant Professor of Practice at the Relay Graduate School of Education, leading a Secondary Clinical Practice and ELA Pedagogy group in Houston, before joining KIPP Texas as a state-wide Director of Teacher Development.

Most recently, Denise has dedicated her time to consulting with schools across the country, implementing teacher development pathways, and creating strategies to meet the needs of multilingual learners.