The International Center for Law and Religion Studies is honored to be able to welcome Denise Lindberg as a Senior Fellow, with focus on Latin America. Lindberg is a Senior District Judge, Third Judicial District Court, State of Utah. She was born in Cuba, and educated in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Her father was Cuban and her mother was a Puerto Rican US citizen; as a result, Lindberg was born a dual citizen of Cuba and the United States. In 1960, she, her mother, and her brother were forced to leave Cuba, while her father was forced to remain. In 1963, Lindberg’s family came to the US, settling in New Rochelle, New York. She and her family were introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through the Mormon exhibit at the New York World’s Fair. By that time her father had also left Cuba.

Lindberg attended Brigham Young University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Communications, and the University of Utah where she received a master’s degree in Educational Psychology in 1973, a master’s degree in Social Work in 1978, and a Ph.D in Health Sciences in 1980. During—and following—her graduate schooling at the University of Utah, Lindberg worked for various State of Utah agencies. As part of her work, she became intrigued with the analytical approach used in the law. Lindberg received a scholarship to BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. She graduated magna cum laude, placing second in her class. She served as an articles editor for the BYU Law Review.

Following graduation from law school, Lindberg served as a law clerk for Monroe G. McKay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and for Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States. Following her clerkships, Lindberg practiced as an appellate and healthcare lawyer in the Washington, DC offices of two national law firms.

In 1995 Lindberg returned to Utah and worked as in-house counsel for a subsidiary of Aetna Life and Causualty Company. She was appointed as a judge of third judicial distrcit of Utah in 1998 by Utah Governor Mike Leavitt. Lindberg’s caseload included both civil and criminal cases. Lindberg served as Master of the Bench with the American Inns of Court and was on the executive committee of two Utah Bar sections. She was elected a member of the American Law Institute in 2000, where she served as an advisor to an ALI project.

She is married to Neil Lindberg. She is the mother of 2 sons and has 11 grandchildren. Lindberg served with her husband as a church-service missionary assigned to a Spanish-speaking branch in Taylorsville, Utah. In early 2014, she was called as a member of the  Young Women General Board of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.