Starting her career as a physical education and health teacher and coach at Pine Ridge Middle School in South Dakota from 1977 to 1979, Denise A. Da Moude decided to change professions and began working for the U.S. Forest Service in Chadron, Nebraska, as a dorm supervisor and counselor from 1980 to 1981. She then joined the U.S. Postal Service as a city carrier from 1981 to 1983, moving up the ranks to clerk from 1983 to 1992. Following this, she transferred to the U.S. Postal Service’s Portsmouth, Virginia, office, where she served as a city carrier from 1993 to 2003 and passport clerk from 2003 to 2010. In addition to this tenure, Ms. Da Moude served on the women’s program committee of the U.S. Postal Service in North Platte, Nebraska, from 1986 to 1990. She also served as a mental health counselor and facilitator for boundaries with divorce care and sexual brokenness groups.
Prior to the start of her professional career, Ms. Da Moude pursued a formal education at Chadron State College, earning a Bachelor of Education in 1976. She later matriculated at Regent University in Virginia Beach, where she attained a Master of Arts in community mental health in 1996. Additionally, she is a certified teacher in Nebraska and South Dakota.
Active in her local community, Ms. Da Moude was a senior troop leader in Chadron from 1977 to 1979, a day camp director in Chadron in 1978 and served on the board of directors for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America in Ogallala, Nebraska, from 1981 to 1983, the latter of which awarded her an Appreciation Award in 1990. She was then active with college students and single parent households through Chadron College from 1983 to 1992, as well as helped single on the move from 1985 to 1992, and served on the committee of the Fellowship of Christian Adult Singles (FOCAS) of West Nebraska from 1986 to 1992. Contributing her time to many church endeavors, Ms. Da Moude served on the board of the Girl Scouts’ guiding star council from 1990 to 1992 and is a Virginia Beach volunteer police chaplain. Currently, she is active with the Just Older Youth Ministry since 2010, and has served the Kempsville Presbyterian Church as deacon from 1999 to 2005 and from 2014 to 2016 and a trustee since 2019.
Outside of her primary trade, Ms. Da Moude was engaged with the Christian Association for Psychological Studies from 1994 to 2000 and the National Association of Female Executives from 1996 to 2001. Today, she maintains involvement with the American Association of Christian Counselors since 1996. Ms. Da Moude also served as a secretary on the board of directors of the Natural Food Cooperative of Chadron Northeast from 1984 to 1986, and was active with the Cardinal Key and Sigma Delta Nu. She is currently a member of the International Conference of Police Chaplains.
In recognition of her efforts, Ms. Da Moude was selected for inclusion in the 26th edition of Who’s Who in the Midwest and several editions of Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America. She was mentored by Susan and Scott Pennick, who are friends she made when she moved to Virginia, and Alma and Charles Harnish, who are hometown friends that mentored her. She would like to be remembered by her peers as someone with a solid work ethic, but not exclusively because she still likes to have fun. The advice that Ms. Da Moude can offer others aspiring to work in her field of education and law enforcement is to get immersed in volunteering, such as becoming a teacher’s aide. There is a lot of things that one can do at the police department to volunteer and understand what they do.
