Through her friendship with Cindy Birdsong, who replaced Florence Ballard as a member of The Supremes in 1967, she began working at Motown as creative assistant to company founder Berry Gordy.

De Passe's association with Gordy was featured in the December 2008 issue of Vanity Fair: Motown the Untold Story, The Labels Greatest Legends, In Their Own Words with photography by Annie Leibovitz.

In 2002, de Passe was named Time Warner Visiting Professor to the Department of Radio, Television and Film at Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications, a post she held for the requisite 3 years.

This is the second installment of the documentary including other prominent African Americans such as filmmaker Tyler Perry, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Pastor T.D.

De Passe served as executive producer for the CBS western miniseries Lonesome Dove, that won both Golden Globe and Peabody Awards and was voted "Outstanding Program of the Year" by the Television Critics Association.

She also served as Executive Producer for Small Sacrifices, The Jacksons: An American Dream and Buffalo Girls, all of which were nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Miniseries.