Denise Watts-Wilson was born in Brooklyn, New York to James and Hattie Watts. Her birth in Christ occurred in July, 1966 at the Bethany Baptist Church of Brooklyn, under the pastorate of the late Dr. William Augustus Jones. It was there that she accepted the call to ministry in the fall of 1975. She is the mother of one adult son, Gregory Alexander Wilson (Greg).

Denise was educated in the New York City Public School System, graduating, with honors, with an academic diploma from the George W. Wingate High School in Brooklyn. She received her B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in Psychology and Elementary Education from the Hunter College of the City University of New York. She has two Masters degrees from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: the Master of Arts in Christian Education and the Master of Divinity in Religious Education.

Professional Credentials include license (1985) and ordination (1988) to ministry by the Brentwood Baptist Church of Houston Texas, lifetime teaching certificates in Texas (K - 6) and Kentucky (1 - 8), as well as certification to direct day care in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Denise has been recognized by Outstanding Young Women of America and Who's Who Among American Educators. She is a lifetime member of the National Guard Association of Texas. In recent years, The Center for Non-Profit Excellence awarded her the Pyramid Award for the Art of Leadership (2004). She was among the 10 recipients of the WLKY-TV Spirit of Louisville Foundation, Inc's 2005 Bell Awards.

Denise has served churches in Brooklyn, New York, Louisville, Kentucky, and Houston, Texas in various ministerial positions, both full and part-time for a total of twenty-one years. She is in her twenty first year of serving as a public school teacher, having served in Houston, Texas, Spring, Texas and Louisville, Kentucky.

Vocationally, Denise is employed as a seventh Grade Math Teacher at Westport Middle School in the Jefferson County Public School district (Louisville, KY). She also serves as the Minister of Music at Clayvillage Baptist Church in  Shelbyville, KY

Her watchword: We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. II Corinthians 4:7