About the Instructor

Denise Ensign is the instructor at Kumon of Redmond - Downtown

Denise celebrates her 18th year as a Kumon Instructor in2025. After having the privilege of guiding many students on their Kumon journey starting as a preschooler and continuing their studies to program completion as middle schoolers, she is and will always be a firm believer in the power of long-term study in Kumon.

Denise is very proud of what the students at her Center accomplish every day. A small sample of the success of her students over the years who have completed the Math and/or Reading Programs include: graduates from Duke University, Stanford, Cal Poly and many other excellent universities. She now has a total of five students who have been accepted into the Robinson Center Program at the University of Washington. These students began taking college courses as freshman in high school. Three have since graduated from UW, meeting high school graduation requirements and earning a bachelor's degree by the age of 19.

Denise is just as proud of her students who initially come to Kumon because they are challenged by their math and/or reading. After making the commitment to study Kumon, and being allowed to step back as far as needed to fix what wasn't working, these same students have come to realize they now enjoy doing used to be overwhelming, but most importantly look forward to new challenges.

Denise does her best to help parents understand that Kumon is not a short-term fix, but a long-term solution. This is because the skills and abilities children need for successful high school and college study take time to develop.

Denise has a passion for her students and an earnest desire to help all children not only succeed academically but excel in life.

Denise is a Certified Kumon Instructor. This means to become a takeover instructor of the Redmond Center in 2008, she had to go through extensive training to understand how the Kumon worksheets develop the skills and abilities in students as they progress through the program.

Denise is a firm believer that there is always still something to learn about developing stronger, more confident students as they progress through the Kumon programs. It is because of this mindset, she takes advantage of every continuing education opportunity Kumon offers, from monthly instructor meetings, attending annual Instructor Conferences, center study tours, and just as importantly networking with other instructors.

In 2021-22, Denise happily volunteered to become a pilot study instructor when Kumon was working to redevelop the AI to CII Reading Levels that were released in 2023. Her participation gave Kumon University important feedback on where the redesigned worksheets needed tweaks to enable younger students to be able to study above grade level with more ease and confidence.