Portfolio

Darleene M. Powells
darleene -at- gmail -dot- com

Employment history

  • KCBS/KCAL, Studio City, CA
    Online News Producer, 9/05 – presentProduce, write headlines and post news stories and video for CBS2.com and KCAL9.com. Stream live events and breaking news online. Created the “Ask The Mayor” archives. Developed ideas for photo slideshows, stories and original video “web extras.”
  • The Glendale News-Press, Glendale, CA
    Reporter, 2/03 – 9/05Covered business and politics for Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge. Coordinated weekly business and politics pages for the News-Press, the Foothill Leader and the Burbank Leader. The sole Saturday reporter. Served previously as the education reporter, covering Glendale and La Canada unified school districts, and cops and courts reporter, covering the Glendale Police Department.
  • City News Service, Century City, CA
    Part-time cops reporter, 11/02 – 2/03Worked the overnight shift at Parker Center-LAPD Headquarters’ media room writing traffic, police and crime stories for three counties.
  • The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, West Covina, CA
    Freelance reporter, 10/02 – 2/03Wrote about community events in the San Gabriel Valley for the weekly Highlander section. Occasionally also shot digital photographs.
  • The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, AZ
    Features Reporter, 6/02 – 8/02Was the sole Home & Garden beat reporter for two months. Took a number of feature assignments from the Food & Drink and Arizona Living sections, including Q & A interviews.
  • The Orange County Register, Lake Forest Bureau, CA
    Freelance reporter/intern, 3/02 – 5/02Covered Laguna Hills, writing daily “Our Town” news for
    the daily. For the weekly, wrote about city hall meetings, features about Laguna Hills’ citizens, collected the weekly cop blotter and calendar items.
  • Brana Fine Art, Pacific Palisades, CA
    Webmaster, 5/01 – 5/02Redesigned the Web site to make it easier to navigate for the gallery’s audience and to make the site easier to update for the graphic designer and programmer. Maintained the site, administrated the email distribution list and wrote the biweekly newsletter.
  • The Daily Titan, Cal State Fullerton, CA
    Editor in Chief, 1/00-12/01Served as assistant news editor, news editor, production manager and finished as editor in chief. Supervised a staff of 30+, designed pages and oversaw production each night.

Education

California State University, Fullerton
B.A. in journalism and Asian American studies, 06/02

Activities & Honors

  • Best Writing and Best Spot News Story awards, Times Community News, 2003
  • 2002 Pulliam Journalism Fellow
  • CSUF Asian American Studies Department Craig & Claire Ihara Outstanding Asian Pacific American Student of the Year, May 2002
  • CSUF Communications Department Award for Professional Promise in Journalism, May 2002
  • First Place Daily, Newspaper of the Year, 2002 Associated College Press Conference, Los Angeles
  • First Place Daily, Sept. 11 Special Coverage, 2002 Associated College Press Conference, Los Angeles
  • Eighth Place, 2001-2002, In-Depth Writing category, Hearst Journalism Competition
  • First place Feature Story, 2001 On-Site competition, California Intercollegiate Press Association

Skills

  • Operating systems – Mac and PC
  • Graphics – Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
  • Web site development – Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver
  • Print Layout – Quark Xpress (PC & Mac)

Skilled in floral and temporary decoration techniques

References and further contact information provided upon request

Work Samples

CBS2.com/KCAL9.com

Original Packages
Slideshows and Screen Grabs

The Glendale News-Press

General assignment
Education
Police, Fire and Courts
The Verdict, One Year Later (news series)