After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru, working with HeadStart parents in Chicago, and managing a VISTA program in West Virginia, and year in University of Pittsburgh grad school, Denise Cavanaugh ended up in Washington DC.
First job turned into first business:
Training local managers of emerging US poverty programs – lasted a short time with “Presidential transition”. I met a local business owner, Dottie Cook, who had a placement firm. After an afternoon {Fall of 1976] conversation we decided to start Cook /Cavanaugh Associates – offering management counsel and training options to a wide range of US Government agencies in DC and to work with growing nonprofit sector.
Washington DC provide great access to the nonprofit sector [foundations, national associations of non-profits serving a wide variety of professions] provided a wide range of clients from local groups, national associations, government agencies. We provided management training, plans for gender and racial equality, and organizational skills needed for strategic planning.
Cook/Cavanaugh Associates morphed into Cavanaugh, Hagan & Pierson Associates in 1976. The next decades provided a wide portfolio of clients local, national and a few international ones.