Founder & Executive Director

Dr. Denise Raquel Dunning is the Founder and Executive Director of Rise Up Together. She launched Rise Up Together following years of working closely with country-based leaders and organizations to develop a new, locally-led model for sustainable impact at scale. Today, Rise Up Together’s team builds power with leaders and partners in the US, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and has created lasting impact for more than 172 million people.

Previously, Denise worked at the David & Lucile Packard Foundation on global women’s reproductive health and rights, and the Inter-American Development Bank on poverty reduction strategies in Honduras. She was a distinguished Fulbright Scholar, National Science Foundation Fellow, and Stanford Social Entrepreneur in Residence.

Denise has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from UC Berkeley, a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Duke. Her work has been featured in media outlets including the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Christian Science Monitor, and Alliance Magazine. 

Denise has lived in five countries, and worked and traveled in many more, including her mother’s native Argentina. She speaks four languages, and now calls San Francisco home, where she resides with her husband, three children, and two cats.