Award winning filmmaker...
to belonging expert
Denise accepts an invite to screen her film and speak at Vaynermedia. She spends one hour interviewing Gary Vee. Listen to the episode here!
2015
2014
The same week.. John Quiñones famous for his show "What would you do?" hosts an intimate private screening for Starbucks leadership in NYC.
2018
17 years later...
See, dreams do come true! crazy, huh?
Denver, CO: Denise is happily married with 2 daughters and longs to fulfill on a promise she made to herself to make her film that she believes will 'heal a generation'. She pitches her idea to Oscar Nominated Producer Henry Ansbacher who attaches himself to Co-Produce and Co-Direct the film alongside her.
Miami, FL: Shortly after Denise's engagement is broken off, she meets up with some friends at a bar in North Miami where she is struck with the idea to make a documentary about the identity challenges of being first gen Latino.
1996
The filmmakers receive an invite to screen at the White House.
The trailer is released on FB and receives 1M combined views. Hundreds of requests flood into Denise's inbox from higher education to Fortune 500 companies asking her to screen film and share what she'd learned.
2016
RECORD SCRATCH MOMENT: While in production, Denise runs out of money and makes the decision with her husband the #gringocowboy to sell their wedding rings so she can keep working on the film. (Watch the story on IG)
The buzz for the film begins. Denise and Henry are featured on the cover of the Denver Westword one full year before the film is released.
The film wins the coveted "People's Choice Award" at the Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival.
2017
Denise's thought leadership expands after every event. She gets accepted to Stanford University's prestigious Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative to learn how to continue to grow her platform and get her message out into the world.
2020-2021
Denise's work is a part of the curriculum at the University of Leicester in the UK. She delightfully accepts an invitation keynote their conference
Someone shares their beautiful tattoo of Denise's logo after seeing her film and hearing her speak a few weeks before.
Quiet on the set! This is the beautiful space where the NBC segment was captured.
The Global Pandemic shuts down the world and George Floyd is murdered. Both bring unprecedented attention to what really matters - Belonging. Demand for Denise's virtual keynote explodes.
what a year!
2024
After an event for Partners Healthcare in Boston (now Mass General) Denise is pulled aside by a PhD student at Harvard who urges her to regard her work on Identity & Belonging as qualitative research, as her findings backed up by the most cutting edge research and both Harvard and Stanford.
The writing is on the wall. Audiences are getting broader and groups outside of the Latino community begin to invite Denise to keynote and share her message. She pivots towards Belonging.
Apple Podcast contacts Denise to ask to feature her as one of five distinguished podcast hosts for her Self-ish Latina Podcast with listeners in 32 countries.
Denise easily earns her A-List Status on Southwest as she traverses the continent speaking to every industry from banking to beauty, education to city municipalities, tech to the entertainment business.
2019
Denise keynotes MPI WEC in San Fransisco inspiring a 3000-person sing-along to Hey Jude.
2022
Denise is invited to weigh in on a segment about Latino identity and belonging for NBC Nightly News. Watch it here!
Denise is thrilled to announce her upcoming book "What Will They Say?" will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2026.
2023
Denise receives the MPI President's Award from the Rocky Mountain Chapter for her work in Belonging.
"You don't need to bake any longer, you are all that you need"
Kyrsten Gentry
Summit Materials
