The Uh-oh Squad: A Tale of Substance Abuse

Denise (Deni) Gordon was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from Arizona State University with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. While completing her degrees she began working at Terros, first as a volunteer than as paid staff. Terros is a drug abuse agency that provides detox, counseling, free clinic and emergency crisis and medical services. Terros still provides most of the same services, medical care and help for people with substance abuse and mental health issues. Upon completing her Master's degree, she moved to Northern California to attend a Ph.D. program in Pharmacology/Toxicology at UCDavis. Her EMT license was current and she became the first female firefighter/EMT on the volunteer Fire Department in Dixon, Ca. She still lives in Northern California. She taught nursing pharmacology at night at Solano College and seventh grade science during the day. She has three K9 children and various indoor and outdoor fish. She loves to downhill ski, travel, and garden. She fell in love with downhill skiing because gravity did all the work and because in Phoenix snow comes in a paper cone with flavors.