Denise Zubizarreta
MALCM, CAEGP

bio

Denise Zubizarreta is a cultural operations strategist, interdisciplinary artist, author, and scholar whose work sits at the intersection of media, technology, identity, and justice. She is currently pursuing an EdD in Educational Leadership, building on an MA in Arts Leadership & Cultural Management from Colorado State University and a BFA in Fine Art from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. Her work bridges scholarship, strategy, and creative practice to challenge systems of power and reimagine more equitable futures.

She is the creator of both the Colonial Stockholm Syndrome (CSS) framework and the broader Colonial Psychological Complex (CPC), which anchors her book, Colonial Stockholm Syndrome: Navigating Identity, Loyalty, and Resistance in Puerto Rico. In it, Denise examines how colonialism shapes identity, emotional life, loyalty, and political imagination across Puerto Rican, Cuban, and broader diasporic communities. Her research investigates how disinformation, psychological conditioning, and structural inequity create cycles of emotional capture that influence media consumption, institutional trust, migration, and the preservation or erasure of cultural memory.

Denise serves as Director of Development & Communications at the New Mexico Local News Fund, where she advances sustainable local journalism ecosystems, leads statewide initiatives, and supports newsroom capacity across the region. She is also Director of Engagement & Development at Latina Media Co., a Rotten Tomatoes-approved publication amplifying Latine voices in arts criticism, entertainment journalism, and cultural commentary. Her work increasingly explores the convergence of arts, media, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.

Bringing startup methodology, narrative strategy, and cross-sector communications expertise, Denise works to break down silos between technologists, journalists, nonprofits, and creatives. She is particularly focused on ensuring the communities most affected by technological disruption are not excluded from the conversations or the solutions. As a writer, she publishes cultural criticism, op-eds, and essays that blend critical autoethnography, media analysis, and decolonial scholarship.

As an artist of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, Denise creates mixed-media work interrogating ancestry, memory, trauma, and the psychological afterlives of colonialism. Across all roles, she remains committed to building equitable creative futures, strengthening community-centered media, and expanding our understanding of power in an age shaped by AI, information warfare, and global cultural transformation.