Denise Cruz, MA, CCC-SLP (ella, she, her), is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University. Denise received her BA and MA in Speech-Language Hearing Sciences from Herbert H, Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She has been in practice since 2005 with experience in a variety of communication, voice, feeding and swallowing disorders across various settings and delivery models. Her clinical interests lie in the areas of rehabilitation of head and neck cancer patients, swallowing disorders, voice disorders, care of the professional voice, cognitive disorders and culturally responsive practice in diagnostics and therapeutic delivery models.
Denise is of Puerto Rican descent, a bilingual (Spanish and English) speaker, and a "practivist" (practicing clinician and activist). She is committed to the pedagogical and implementation of culturally responsive practices both in and out of the classroom and in clinical settings. She is dedicated to social justice activism in healthcare and education and patient advocacy. Denise is passionate about addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues within the field of speech-language pathology and is dedicated to the recruitment and mentoring of underrepresented students entering the field of speech-language pathology.
Denise remains clinically active through per diem work in the private sector providing evaluations and treatment to pediatric and geriatric clients with communicative, voice and swallowing impairments. She is currently a sitting board member of the New York State Education Department Office of the Professions (Licensing Board) for Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology. Mrs. Cruz is certified by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA).