Denyse Castle has worked as a project manager, in a variety of industries during her career.  She has carried a long list of titles but all of the work was basically project managing of process improvement or implementation.

She spent her pre-parenting years working for the Peoria Public Library in the circulation stacks. After a few years working at being a stay-at-home mom, she enrolled in college, took a few courses, and began a new work life.  She spent the next 8 years working for a marketing firm (now known as Affina) working in Yellow Page Advertising, Data Center Controls (IBM Mainframe), Direct Mail Marketing, and Inquiry Fulfillment. Her client base consisted of companies such as State Farm Insurance, Panasonic, Sharp, Philips, Matsushita, Bang & Olufsen, and Country Companies. After successfully launching a massive direct marketing campaign for one of her clients, Philips Consumer Electronics, she was offered a job as a Relationship Marketing Manager with Philips.  So, she loaded up the family and moved to Tennessee.

While at Philips Consumer Electronics (Service Division), Denyse held the positions of Relationship Marketing Manager, Direct Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Accessories Purchasing Manager, and International Database Manager.  All basically project management jobs.  With over 500 hours of Quality Improvement Training, she concurrently held the position of Quality Improvement Facilitator for the Service Division, leading them to become the first non-product company to achieve ISO-9000 Certification.

Also while working at Philips, she earned her B.S. in Organization Management from Tusculum College (magna cum laud) and a Master of Education (counseling emphasis) from Carson Newman College. She then made a career move and transitioned to public education.  She served as adjunct faculty at Walters State Community College and as a school counselor for two rural Tennessee school districts providing guidance to over 700 children...until the funding ran out.  So... she loaded up the car and moved to Cleveland. 

"Cleveland?  Really?  Don't most people move FROM Cleveland, not TO Cleveland?"  She heard it from everyone but ignored the advice of many and has made Cleveland her home.  She worked as an IT Recruiter for a few months, then at Cuyahoga Community College as a proffer. When the temporary work ended she went to work at a national propane company to document Y2K compliance.  She stayed there for a few years working as a project manager before going to work for Parsons Corporation as part of the Project Management Team for the Cleveland Hopkins Airport Expansion Project.  The main function of her job was cost control and contract auditing for a $1.6 billion construction project. 

Just as the construction project was winding down, in mid-2003, she became one of the leaders of an effort to draft General Wesley Clark to run for President of the United States.  The draft was a success and he threw his hat in the race.  Denyse worked on the national level of the campaign serving as Technical Project Director, until he withdrew from the race.  Up until this point in her life she was basically a Microsoft junkie.  However, the draft effort had very little money and necessity became the mother of invention.  The group, and subsequent campaign, were run with open source applications and processes.  Denyse now goes either way believing there is a time and place for both platforms.

Unemployed for the first time in her career, the job search began.  After an extensive job search she was hired by Cleveland State University to manage a Technical Training Contract with the City of Cleveland Department of Public Utilities.  She has since been promoted to Director of Computer and Technical Programs for the Division of Continuing Education.  She directs programs for computers, software, information technology, sustainability, landscape horticulture, construction and engineering.  Denyse also serves as Webmaster for the Division of Continuing Education. 

Denyse attended the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit and is involved in the community-wide effort for "Building the economic engine to empower a green city on a blue lake."  She is currently working to obtain certification as a Senior Certified Sustainability Professional (SCSP) through Green Supply Chain.  She also owns her own company and works part-time as a web designer and fiber artist.