Jennifer Denton, who was recently promoted to chief operations officer for the CSU-Pueblo Foundation Office, said she envisions positive outlooks in her career and recalls memorable experiences in her life.

Denton said she was promoted to the chief operations officer position in the foundation office. She said one main responsibility of the position is she monitors the employees to see they work productively.         

The position requires her to work and answer questions from the foundation staff, and work study students, she also said, and to write and interpret office policies, to attend foundation board and Land Holdings Board meetings. 

Denton said the Land Holdings Board manages real estate gifts to the foundation so the gifts are donated to the university and the board is a separate entity. Additionally, she said when she attends the meetings to negotiate real estate donations from the holdings board members. 

She said she worked in the foundation office as the manager of gifts and records, which she started on March 2, 2009. Denton said the position required her to be the database administrator. 

Denton said she distributed data to other employees in the office. She also said she input information such as gifts and money contributions from alumni and private donors. “So as manager of gifts and records, I truly was managing the gifts, making sure they got put in the right place and properly accounted for,” Denton said.   

In addition, she said she recorded the amounts of money and gifts donors contributed, and where the donations intended to go. Denton also said she input information such as marital status, deaths and home addresses of alumni.

Denton said she wanted to work at the university because she thought she was qualified for the manager of gifts and records position. Yet, she wanted to work in Pueblo, she said, because she is passionate about helping people in the community to achieve in higher education. “I’m a huge advocate for education,” Denton said.

 “So that was exciting to me, being able to work somewhere, where we could help people in this community get a higher education,” she said.

Denton said she is grateful to work at the university and thanks DenaSue Potestio, executive director of the foundation. She said Potestio lets her utilize skills to perform her job.

 Denton said working at the university has helped her grow as a person. “It’s helped me become more of who I was meant to become,” she said. She thinks the job is the right position and it helps her become a better person.          

Denton was born in Fort Collins, she said, and then moved to Pueblo when she was 2 years old. She said throughout her childhood she played with her friends, her sisters Elizabeth and Stephanie, and stepbrother Casey. Denton said she enjoyed activities such as when she danced on the high school dance team and reading books. 

When she attended East High School, Denton said, she joined the dance team. She said the team rehearsed before sports games and danced at the games. 

Denton said reading was another activity she enjoyed and she learned a lot from it. She said she enjoyed going to school and applied herself with her academics.                 

Although she has lived in Pueblo, she said she lived in Houston, Texas, for 8 years where she attended college at Rice University. Denton said when she graduated, with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineerin.

When she graduated college, she said, she worked 4 years at CSC Consulting Group, which is a consulting firm.

Denton said, she met her husband Brian Denton and married him in 2000. She also said that they talked about moving and wanted to start a family. Above all, Denton said she wanted to live in Pueblo because she wanted to live closer to her family.

Denton said she wanted to move to Pueblo was because she thought it is a good city to live in and raise a family. In all, she said, she and her husband, Brian, moved to Pueblo and have lived her for 9 years. 

Denton said she enjoys being a mother. She said she has two daughters, Hannah Denton, 8, and Natalie Denton, 5-years-old. 

Her older daughter, Hannah is active and a good girl, she said. Hannah also enjoys and does karate and goes to school, Denton said. Natalie is also active and likes to have fun, enjoys doing gymnastics and attends pre-kindergarten, she said.  

In all, Denton said, she wants to teach her daughter that school and getting an education are important. “I’m just really enjoy sharing that love of learning I have with them,” she said.