Denna Babul, R.N.

Denna Babul is a woman on the go. Between her medical career and national speaking engagements she founded The Fatherless Daughter Project (TFDP) in 2013. After earning her degree and becoming a Registered Nurse she worked in critical care, coronary, pediatrics and emergency before getting into sales. She has enjoyed reaching the pinnacle in her sales career by winning consecutive awards in her industry, including multiple Presidents Clubs and twice being the top national executive sales manager.

She is constantly brainstorming ideas that will enrich the lives of the women she touches. Her calling is to improve the lives of fatherless daughters from all walks of life and every age. She is an energetic speaker and has earned acclaim in changing the lives of her audiences. She enjoys motivating and encouraging women by speaking to groups both large and small. Her repertoire includes: how to be a working mom while building your own empire, how to follow and succeed in your dreams, how not to let your past interfere with the future you desires, from fatherless to fearless, how to identify if you are commitment phobic or claustrophobic, how physical and emotional health is intertwined, and so much more. She has been described as a cross between your best friend and your favorite guru on everything fatherless. She is known for using her quick wit, engaging humor, and own unique personal story to engage audiences of all kinds. Amidst all of the exciting activity with TFDP, she still makes sure her family is at the top of her list. Denna is married to Jon, a “saint of a husband” and together they are raising two amazing children: Sophie Bleu, 3 and Weston, 1.

Denna has spent years involved in a variety of charity efforts. As a sponsor of the 2003 Rock and Roll Marathon, she raised thousands of dollars for the Leukemia Foundation. She has also volunteered and raised money for Habitat for Humanity, The Atlanta Mission, The Atlanta Ronald McDonald House, Wellspring Living, The ALS foundation, and many more.

Denna is an entrepreneur at heart and has engaged in many successful endeavors over the years. She is a gifted writer, and for years wrote a monthly column on single life for Jezebel magazine. Her husband nicknamed her, “Dear Denna” as she enjoys analyzing relationships and advising her friends or anyone that seems to be stuck in reverse. Born out of that same vein, she started and ran her own popular greeting card company, Dear Jon Cards, for five years before selling it to pursue other interests. Her popular tagline was “What everyone is thinking but won’t say.” Well, now she is saying it.

Denna is a doer and finds excitement in taking life by the horns and making things happen. Her future plans involve continuing to write and speak along with starting her own charity for fatherless daughters in each and every city in the United States. It is her hope that through her charity she can provide everything from advice to scholarships to aide daughters in becoming exactly who their dreams tell them they can be.

Denna’s Story

Sometimes your life is predestined in a way that you can never fully fathom. Many times what you think you want to do and what is meant for your life are two different things.

It all started when my parents divorced when I was 3 years old. Life as I knew it changed. I now lived with my mother and brother only seeing my father only a handful of times a year. A crack in my heart was starting to form. At 13, my father died un-expectantly. My life changed and the trajectory of who I would become had now taken on a new path. I was a fighter before I even understood what it would mean in my life.

It was right around Valentine’s Day in 1984. I was eating some Valentine sweet tarts when my mother called for my brother and I to come into her room. “I have something to tell you,” she said, crying, holding a newspaper clipping in her hand. I saw my dad’s name in bold print under Obituaries. “Your father has passed away,” she told us.

Those words changed my life. It was over. I would never have the chance to make it right with him. I would never see him again.

Now fast forward 30 years later. I was a successful medical sales representative. I married a saint of a man and had two children, but I still didn’t feel fulfilled. The problem (or, perhaps, the “gift”) was that, outside of my family, something was missing. My fatherless daughter radar was always on high alert—beep-beep-beeping in my head everywhere I went.

I was the girl at the dinner party who would be at the end of the table talking to a broken young woman about what led to her recent breakup, which always went back to her father. Seriously. It always did. Every Sunday over breakfast, I would watch Sunday Morning and, if the person they were featuring mentioned being fatherless, I would jot the name down, which is how I learned Patricia Cornwell had been abandoned by her father. Even Demi Moore was abandoned by her father before she was born. Everywhere I turned there was another daughter with another story. Lindsey Lohan wrote a song about growing up without her dad entitled “Confessions of a Broken Heart( Daughter to Father). All I could think when I heard it was…we may all look different, but underneath our pain is the same.

It was all consuming. I started keeping a running list of fatherless daughters and statistics that I found noteworthy. I wrote on napkins, in notebooks, and in a file on my hard drive. I tucked the facts into my brain, and it often seemed they were all I heard in a day filled with so much other white noise. It became what some might call my obsession, but I believe it to be my passion.

In 2001, I wrote a manuscript about my fatherless story. But then I realized it was not about me. There was a far more important book to be written—one that delved into how losing a father can impact a woman’s emotional, social, psychological, and professional development. In order to write the best book I could write, I asked my dear friend Dr.Karin to join me. Together, we have embarked on a personal journey to put meaning to the mission in our lives.