BUFFALO, NY, May 04, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn serves as the Executive Servant Leader and Chief Executive Officer of Urban Christian Ministries in Buffalo, New York, where she has been driving transformative growth since 2023. Reporting to the Board of Directors, she leads with vision and accountability, architecting strategy, strengthening organizational infrastructure, and stewarding financial sustainability to ensure long-term impact. She builds and develops high-performing teams, cultivates leaders, and designs faith-centered, evidence-informed programs that equip youth to walk in purpose and disrupt cycles of violence. Her leadership extends beyond operations into influence, mobilizing community partnerships, advancing civic and faith engagement, and amplifying UCM's voice across the region. Grounded in presence, not position, she remains deeply connected to the work on the ground, engaging directly with youth, shaping culture, and ensuring every initiative reflects the mission to develop leaders rooted in faith, resilience, and community transformation.

Before stepping into her current role, Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn served as Executive Director of VOICE Buffalo, a multi-faith, faith-rooted organizing network affiliated with Faith in Action, the largest grassroots faith-based organizing movement in the nation. In this role, she led with conviction and clarity, advancing a bold agenda for racial justice and equity through strategic community organizing, political education, and collective action. Under her leadership, VOICE strengthened coalitions among youth, formerly incarcerated persons, faith leaders, and policymakers, driving campaigns that secured systemic wins, including increased advocacy for youth investment, support for landmark policy shifts such as New York's Clean Slate Act, and expanded community-centered alternatives to policing. Beginning in 2019 as the Lead LIVE FREE Justice and Equity Organizer, she built power at the grassroots level, mobilizing directly impacted communities, developing leaders, and shaping campaigns that challenged systems of inequity while cultivating healing, civic engagement, and sustainable change across Buffalo.

Earlier in her career, Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn served as a Program Project Manager at the Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center, where she led initiatives designed to expand equitable access to health education and improve outcomes for underserved communities. Her work centered on bridging gaps between systems and communities, aligning partners, managing high-impact projects, and advancing strategies that addressed the social determinants of health. In 2017, she also served with Open Buffalo as a Civic Engagement, Outreach, and Education Coordinator, where she played a key role in shaping and facilitating The Emerging Leaders Program, a rigorous four-month leadership pipeline focused on racial, economic, and ecological justice. Through this work, she helped design a transformative curriculum, cultivate grassroots leadership, and equip community members with the tools to organize, advocate, and lead systemic change across Buffalo.

Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn's professional journey began in 2015 as a Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator with the Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo, Inc., where she quickly distinguished herself as a systems-level thinker and grassroots mobilizer. Through 2017, she served as a bridge between institutions and the community, strengthening public health awareness, increasing access to critical resources, and building trust in underserved neighborhoods. She led and organized parents, students, school leadership, and cross-sector stakeholders to co-create what became one of the most comprehensive school district codes of conduct in the country, and to develop a district-wide wellness strategy rooted in equity and prevention. Her leadership extended into workforce and capacity building, training thousands of parents and students as Community Health Workers, equipping them to serve as trusted messengers and advocates within their own communities. She also trained hundreds of medical professionals and partnered with healthcare systems to strengthen culturally responsive care, while advancing faith-based health literacy initiatives that integrated spiritual and community-centered approaches to wellness.

In preparation for her evolving leadership, Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn pursued business administration and management at Chattahoochee Technical College and completed graduate-level coursework at Buffalo State University and the University at Buffalo, strengthening her expertise in leadership, systems thinking, and organizational development. She was also awarded a full scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, an elite opportunity she honorably deferred due to family commitments, reflecting her deep values of responsibility, sacrifice, and purpose-driven decision-making.

Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn is an active contributor to several national initiatives, including a national Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities steering committee, United We Stand, a movement addressing hate and division, and Clergy for Safe Cities, a faith-based initiative advancing solutions to gun violence across the country. Locally, she co-founded the East Side Collaborative, a coalition of nonprofits reimagining what a sustainable, equity-driven ecosystem can and should look like for organizations serving disinvested communities.

Throughout her career, Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn has distinguished herself as a catalyst for opportunity, impact, and systems-level change, consistently translating vision into measurable community transformation. She is widely recognized for her ability to unify and mobilize communities in moments of crisis, most notably drawing upon her pastoral and community leadership and deep relational trust to help guide her city through collective trauma and healing in the aftermath of a racially motivated mass shooting. In that defining moment, her leadership was not only steady and compassionate but strategic, holding space for grief while activating pathways toward restoration, resilience, and long-term change.

Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn's leadership has been recognized through honors such as the Woman of Faith Award for community leadership from First Shiloh Baptist Church and statewide acknowledgment from the New York State Council of Churches for her leadership in the wake of May 14th. Grounded in an unshakable faith, she credits her resilience and impact to God's guidance, the power of mentorship, and a deep commitment to developing leaders, firmly believing that each level of growth is not a destination, but a gateway to greater purpose and expanded impact.

Rev. Denise O. Walden Glenn is advancing her leadership through the Western & Central New York Health Fellowship, deepening her commitment to systems change and community well-being. Looking ahead, she is building a youth-centered restorative and wellness ecosystem, co-created with young people, to cultivate resilience, leadership, and long-term thriving, while intentionally investing in the next generation so they can see themselves not just as participants, but as architects of the future.

About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. The suite of Marquis® publications, including Who's Who in America® and Who's Who in the World®, remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the globe. Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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