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Dena Merriam is one of the partners of Ruder Finn. Her areas of responsibility include Ruder Finn's work in cultural marketing, creative services, corporate responsibility and in work for religious and non-profit organizations. In the area of creative services, Dena Merriam oversees the publishing, editorial, design, visual technology and new media divisions of the company. She also oversees the company's Arts and Communications Counselors Division, which develops cultural programs for corporations and governments and provides strategic counsel to museums, foundations and other cultural institutions.

Merriam has worked with numerous corporate foundations and government organizations on social and global issues for the improvement of the human condition. For the Shumei Cultural Foundation in Japan she is implementing a global communications program to foster greater appreciate for the arts and to engage dialogue between the spiritual and cultural worlds. She has been involved with numerous projects with the United Nations to help support its objectives and goals. Presently, she is working with the Interfaith Center of New York City in the creation of the Millennium Peace Summit for Religious and Spiritual Leaders that will engage religious leaders from around the world to work as a resource to the United Nations in its efforts to resolve conflict throughout the world. Merriam is also providing counsel to the State of the World Form in its attempt to gather world thought leaders to address international problems. She is also working on a Co-existence Initiative to develop a greater awareness of the need for co-existence training as an essential component of the education system. And, she is working with a New York based organization called the Community Literacy Program that organizes the largest anti-violence program in the US. Each year, it provides resources to 20,000 inner-city youth in the New York metropolitan area.

Although Merriam's current work is with foundations, religious organizations and in the area of corporate responsibility, her background is in the cultural world where she has written extensively about the arts for over 15 years. For many years she was the executive editor of Sculpture Review and has authored five books on art, including one on the contemporary Dutch sculptor Lika Mutal and one on the Italian sculptor Bruno Lucchesi. Merriam holds a masters' degree from Columbia University.