Denise E. Cavanaugh

Denise Cavanaugh has been intrigued by the ways that organizations prosper, decline and renew ever since her early assignments as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, Parent Coordinator with Head Start in Chicago and Program Officer with VISTA in West Virginia. All three organizations provided a first-hand, front line view of the challenges of organization development. Denise stepped into the corporate world in 1974 by starting a management consulting firm in Washington, DC that provided organization development services to non-profit groups, health-care organizations, entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies.

In 1985, Ann Hagan and Jane Pierson joined Denise to create Cavanaugh, Hagan & Pierson. This long running partnership – now enriched with a new partner, Joshua Mintz – has developed into a smart, trusted ally for organization leaders across many sectors of the economy. In particular, Denise brings a keen sense of strategy to each assignment and is eager to work with an organization's stakeholders to take a tough-minded look at future scenarios that could bring the organization's mission, goals and values to life. Denise is always ready to work with clients to craft an organization structure and set of processes that will make it possible to advance their goals in simple and elegant ways.

Denise serves as a:

  guide in the design and implementation of a practical, expeditious strategic planning process;

  diagnostician to assess recent organizational patterns, map out what the next healthy stage might look like and develop strategies that will advance the organization's mission and goals; and a

  strategic thinker able to plan and facilitate productive meetings that prompt clarity of purpose, agreement on implementation and action steps for the immediate term.

Denise is a graduate of St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana where she earned a B.A. degree in economics and sociology and has a folder full of certificates from an eclectic mix of professional development seminars.