Denisse Martinez

Denisse joined the Institute as Program Manager for Prison-to-College Pipeline (P2CP) in November 2020, and she was promoted to Director of P2CP in January 2022. Before this, she was an Administrator for CCNY’s STEM Institute. There, she worked on designing, implementing, and overseeing several college-ready programs for historically-excluded students in Northern Manhattan. Denisse’s interests have always been at the intersection of criminal justice and educational interventions. She developed this passion after taking two Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program courses as an undergraduate student. This prompted her to pursue a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. While there, her research focused on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration, social support during incarceration and post-release, and strengths-based reentry. Denisse has also taught undergraduate courses at Rutgers University and was an English teacher in Spain. More broadly, her background includes several years of work with justice-involved and traditionally underserved populations and a proven commitment to prevention, reentry, and diversion work. Denisse holds a BA in Criminal Justice, with minors in Human Development & Family Studies and French, from the University of Delaware and an MA in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University.