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Who We Are

Board, Staff & Trainers

Denise Dowell

Denise Dowell

Denise Dowell was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina however due to her father’s 26 years of military service most of her life, childhood through young adulthood, she lived all over the US and spent three tours in Germany where she graduated high school in Nuremberg. Denise’s 30+ year career spans a variety of industries in both for and in nonprofit where her focus has been operations, communications, sales, relationship management, event planning, and business development. Denise's passion and a growing desire born of her family’s value system, has been fully integrated within the communities she serves to give back and has done so for as long as she can remember. Denise courageously left her for-profit career in 2016 to pursue her longtime dream to work in nonprofit; she returned to school and attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado where she studied social science. After several semesters of study at Regis, she moved on to an accelerated focused program at Red Rocks Community College and obtained her certificate in Nonprofit Management. After a six month internship with the CEO of then LiveWell Colorado, now The Colorado Health Foundation, Denise went on to work for Community First Foundation in Denver where she served as an associate in Philanthropic Services before joining Operation Homefront (a national nonprofit serving military families and veterans) in December of 2021. Denise is the Regional Development Manager for the western United States where she raises money to support Operation Homefront’s national and regional family support programs. It was her family’s military heritage and firsthand knowledge of growing up in a military family that drew her to Operation Homefront. She says “its only fitting as military is in my DNA.” Denise’s dog Max brings her tremendous joy and keeps her busy. She enjoys cooking, baking, reading, travelling, serving in her church, and of course spending time with family and friends – anything that brings people together to celebrate all that life offers.  

Our Impact

  • Graduated Veteran/Dog Teams

    399

  • Rescued Arizona Homeless Dogs

    277+

  • Our Goal for Veterans Served in 2024

    175

  • Training Hours Provided in 2023

    2825

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