Resume & Portfolio

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

Employment History

CBSLosAngeles.com, Studio City, CA
Online News Producer, 9/05 – present
Managed homepage, edited news wire copy, wrote headlines, selected photos and video stills for stories and videos for CBSLosAngeles.com. Shot digital pictures and used video stills of news footage for slideshows. Wrote guides, top lists and stories. Coordinated breaking news, such as the 2007 Firestorm, 2008 Chatsworth Metrolink train crash and the death of Michael Jackson. Set up station’s first Facebook page and created video and story widgets for social networking websites.

The Glendale News-Press, Glendale, CA
Reporter, 2/03 – 9/05
Covered business and politics for Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta and La Cañada 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 – 2/03
Worked 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 – 2/03
Wrote 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 – 8/02
Was 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 – 5/02
Covered 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 – 5/02
Redesigned 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, 1/00-12/01
Served 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

  • Author of the blog, darleeneisms, since 1998
  • Author of the blog, The Wedding Decorator, since 2005
  • Member of the Asian American Journalists Association
    • 2009 Co-President, Los Angeles Chapter
    • 2009 Trivia Bowl fundraising event coordinator
    • 2008 Los Angeles Chapter Board Member, website redesign committee member
  • 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

CBSLosAngeles.com

Stories and Photo Galleries

The Glendale News-Press

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