Denise Murphy McGraw
Executive Director
Denise Murphy McGraw is a seasoned association management, advocacy, political and issue campaign professional, and governance leader who, for more than 30 years, has achieved success helping employers, professional trade organizations, nonprofits, and communities prosper by implementing sustainable growth strategies for organizations of all sizes. As executive director of The Agency, she leads a dynamic team of fulltime staff and consultants who offer services such as fundraising, political consulting, leadership and governance coaching, association administration, and DEI training.
Denise has held positions within state government, trade associations, and the largest academic health care system in Upstate New York. During her tenure as the executive director of the Chamber Alliance of New York, she developed the strategic plan that transformed the organization into one of the largest state-level trade associations for chambers of commerce in the United States. She was the legislative director for Assembly Majority Leader (now United States Representative) Joseph D. Morelle of Rochester and led the legislative advocacy campaign for one of the most significant business stimulus packages in New York State history. In addition, she has obtained more than $1 billion federal, state, and local funding for economic development initiatives, capital projects, health care research and disease prevention, education initiatives, energy savings programs, and efforts to combat food insecurity.
In 2020, Denise chaired Upstate New York for Biden-Harris and served on the leadership team of New York for Biden-Harris. In her role, she led volunteer and field operations that resulted in hundreds of thousands of voter contacts throughout the country. She also founded New York Catholics for Biden which helped President Biden win the important swing state of Pennsylvania. Currently, she is helping lead the national steering committee that will soon be launching Catholics Vote for Common Good, a national social justice voter mobilization organization.
As chairwoman of the Presidential Search Committee for Schenectady Community College, Denise led the process to name SCCC’s first new president in nearly two decades and the first ever person of color. She is president of the Junior League of Schenectady & Saratoga Counties and founded the nationally recognized Capital Region Antiracism Training Initiative, leading to the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, and the Allyship Institute, which has hosted more than a dozen free community training programs related to parenting, education, health disparities, food racism, and antiracism efforts for people of faith. She currently co-hosts Community Conversations, a weekly public affairs television program focusing on bringing awareness to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and allyship.
Denise is a native of Merrick, Long Island. She is a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Association Management at the University of Charleston in South Carolina and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the State University at Brockport. Denise lives in Niskayuna, New York along with her husband, David, and their daughter, Caroline, who is a senior at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was New York State’s youngest delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention and is currently serving as an intern at the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.