Derek Major Email & Phone Number

New York City Metropolitan Area

• Head politics reporter covering national and state political campaigns, races, and news including the 2020 Presidential Election, the 2021 New York City Mayoral Election, and The Black Lives Matter movement protests.
• Pitched and wrote stories focused on education including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) technological innovations and programs, large donations made to HBCUs, and new initiatives designed by the.
• Pitched and wrote feature articles focusing on Black and minority entrepreneurs and businesses in technology real estate, venture capital, construction, food and spirits, sports, education, and more.
• Wrote branded content articles for national and multinational companies advertising with Black Enterprise including Capital One, Gilead Sciences, Progressive Insurance, and the National Football League (NFL).

New York City Metropolitan Area

• Reported on federal, state, and local tax news including state and local tax regulations, final regulations, proposed and final bills, and important changes to existing federal and state tax laws.
• Produced articles on state, and federal tax court opinions and decisions.
• Interviewed tax, finance, and wealth management attorneys and partners of the top 400 U.S. and international law firms and produced articles for the monthly Laterals Audit column highlighting tax lawyers moving to new.

Virginia

• Covering Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies and drug manufacturing facilities.
• Report on warning letters, Form 483 enforcement letters and guidances released by the agency as well as Pharmaceutical manufacturing quality news, and government actions concerning FDA, prescription drugs, drug pricing.
• Responsible for the edit and lay out of copy for Drug GMP Report, a monthly newsletter focusing on the good manufacturing practices and trends in the pharmaceutical manufacturing field.

Vienna, Virginia

• Covering government IT projects at the federal, state and local level.
• Attended cybersecurity conferences to find and write stories on new projects, forums on IT systems and cybersecurity and speeches from members of the federal government.
• Produced briefs on new projects and cyber initiatives from government and private agencies.

Portales, New Mexico

• Assisted in the development of daily, weekly, and monthly budgets, assigned stories to writers, and pitched story ideas for news and sports sections.
• Interviewed local politicians, community members, and residents for stories on local news including education, crime, local government, and more.
• Responsible for the sports section including covering a wide range of sports for four local area high schools and Eastern New Mexico University, a Division II school.
• Responsibilities included pitching story ideas for weekly sports features, a weekly column focusing on national sports topics of the moment, attending local high school games and shooting photos for stories, calling.

Martinsville, VA

• Covered a wide range of sports for seven local area high schools, Patrick Henry Community College, an NJCAA school, and two annual NASCAR races at Martinsville Speedway.
• Responsibilities included attending games and producing stories, calling local coaches for out-of-town scores and stats to produce briefs and box scores. Nightly copy editing and pagination duties using Quark Express.
• Posted scores, photos, and videos to Bulletin Sports Twitter and Facebook pages. Interviewed coaches and produced stories for Bulletin fall/winter and spring high school sports preview.

Mineola, New York, United States

• Wrote articles and briefs focusing on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) including terrorism (foreign and domestic), biometric security initiatives and tools, chemical, biological & nuclear explosive devices.
• Attended security conferences and trade shows in New York City and Washington D.C. to research new security innovations, and attended panels and discussions on security initiatives to pitch story ideas.
• Responsible for three stories per day on homeland security news and articles.

Responsible for covering a wide range of sports for seven local area high schools in Central, PA.Responsibilities included attending games and interviewing coaches for stories, calling coaches for out-of-town scores, and stats for briefs and box scores. Nightly pagination duties laying out the sports section and using the TX Word program for AP sports.