Denise Cartolano is the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel at Sentient Media, where she helps advance the organization through strategic leadership and legal oversight. Prior to this role, she served as an Attorney Advisor at the Department of Justice, a position she obtained through the Attorney General’s Honors Program.

Denise earned her B.A. in Political Science from Brooklyn College in 2008 and her A.A.S. in Veterinary Technology from LaGuardia Community College in 2011. In May 2016, she graduated in the top ten percent of her class at Barry University School of Law, magna cum laude. She went on to receive an LL.M. in Homeland and National Security Law from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in December 2018, and most recently completed an LL.M. in Animal Law at Lewis & Clark Law School in May 2026.

Denise pursued her Animal Law LL.M. to deepen her expertise in the field and prepare for nonprofit work. She was awarded the William C. Borst Anti-Vivisection Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship covering the duration of her LL.M. program. During the summer of 2025, she completed a Government Affairs Internship at the Animal Welfare Institute, and she served as a research assistant to Professor Joyce Tischler. She also worked as a research assistant to Professor Randall S. Abate, editing chapters for his book, What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law?