Denise is currently an adjunct professor with the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program, training university teams from across the US on translating their research into viable startups. She recently worked at the University of Southern California where she helped the engineering faculty commercialize early-stage discoveries and move them from the lab to the marketplace. Denise also has more than fifteen years of experience as a patent litigator. Her practice focused on helping tech companies protect their ideas and inventions from theft by competitors. In addition, she worked as an electrical engineer at a major aerospace company where she developed mathematical models of missile navigation systems.