Dena Carreyn is a senior leadership and organizational effectiveness professional with a background in law, public service, and enterprise leadership development. Her work focuses on judgment and decision-making in complex, high-consequence environments.
Dena began her legal career as a Deputy District Attorney in Ventura County, California, where she conducted more than 40 jury and court trials and later assumed supervisory responsibilities, including management of the county trial calendar. She was subsequently recruited to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office to help launch the city’s Neighborhood Prosecutor Program, which embedded senior prosecutors within LAPD divisions. Assigned to Central Division in downtown Los Angeles, she worked closely with law enforcement leadership on complex enforcement initiatives, investigations, and litigation in one of the city’s most operationally challenging environments. Her work included advising on multi-agency task forces, search warrants, and enforcement strategy, as well as training officers across the department.
Building on this experience, Dena became a recognized expert in homeless policy and public-sector response. She partnered with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to establish statewide training standards, advised agencies on diversion and service-integration models, drafted legislation, and testified before the California State Legislature. Her work contributed to the passage of a landmark patient-dumping statute and the implementation of innovative programs balancing public safety, legal compliance, and human impact.
Dena later served as Legal Counsel to the Los Angeles City Council, advising 15 elected officials and negotiating, on behalf of the City of Los Angeles, an annual operating budget exceeding $6 billion. In this role, she worked at the intersection of law, policy, political dynamics, and public accountability.
In the last several years, Dena has focused her work on leadership development and organizational effectiveness in large, complex organizations, including highly regulated and public-sector environments. She designs and leads senior-level initiatives, advises executives during periods of change and ambiguity, and works across functional and operational boundaries to surface patterns that affect decision quality. She is valued for her ability to help senior leaders see what matters most when the context is complex and the consequences are real.