She was born in Luxembourg, grew up in the United States of America, but competes for Great Britain. Born 9 December 1978 in Ettelbruck in Luxembourg, her father Martin Johns is English, and she has one sister. She grew up in Copley, Ohio, and started playing volleyball at the age of 10.
She attended Copley High School, where she excelled at swimming, track and volleyball. She graduated in 2002, and moved to Atlanta, playing amateur beach volleyball on the east coast of America.
Her family moved from Luxembourg to Ohio when she was 4 years old. She obtained a bachelor"s degree in architecture from University of Cincinnati, where she concentrated on rowing rather than volleyball. After success in those tournaments she moved to San Diego, California where she played on the Avon Products tour for four years.
In 2005, she and Alicia Polzin defeated both the second and third ranked teams on the tour in the same tournament.
She has competed in 42 Avon Products tournaments, 6 FIVB tournaments, and 22 various other tournaments. She was ranked 12th on the Avon Products after 2006.
She obtained first place in the Weymouth Classic in 2006, 4th place in the Argentina FIVB Challenge in 2005, 2nd place in Mexico in 2005, and 1st place at the Avon Products Next Championships in 2003. She currently trains at the United Kingdom volleyball Headquarters at TeamBath at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. Denise has volunteered for Premiership 4 Sport, coached for the Volleyball England initiative and is also an ambassador for Go Spike.
