Đenise is a poet, educator & researcher based in New York—aka the homelands of the Lenape. Born & raised in the Dakota homelands of Mni Sota Makoce—Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds—she grew up in an intergenerational Việt-Canto refugee home alongside medical device factory workers, postal service carriers & defiant culture bearers. Đenise descends from long lines of fiercely compassionate women who built lives in Việt Nam as artists, community healers & guardians of land & water along the Sông Cửu Long—River of Nine Dragons.

After a lifetime of complex miseducation in public & private schooling systems & society at large, Đenise is concerned with collective moral injury, educational ethics & the struggle to live our lives with integrity. Her research, teaching & creative practices are grounded in the struggle to end cycles of violence & create true peace (Thích Nhất Hạnh, 2003). Along this path, she engages with opportunities we create to understand our ancestors, ourselves & the world around us now—especially the parts we were taught to hide or erase. She investigates creative efforts we make—& complexities that arise—as we reinvent & remake culture; these practices engage the embodiment of poetic forms—encompassing the senses & the spirit with text, sound & visual works.

Currently, Đenise is in the dissertation writing stage of her doctoral research. Prior to returning for her PhD, she worked closely with afterschool programs, museums & (in)formal education organizations—first as a tutor, teaching assistant & youth worker during her years as an undergraduate & then later as an evaluator, researcher & consultant for over two decades. In her family, she is among the first in her generation to experience higher education on Turtle Island. She is committed to growth through experiential & transformative learning in this lifetime & the next.