Samantha J. Gross

Reporter

Education

Split time between Miami and the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times capitol bureau in Tallahassee during the legislative sessions with a focus on healthcare, immigration, the environment and medical marijuana.
Contributed to coronavirus pandemic coverage, including early coverage of the Florida Department of Health’s response, disease spread through the state prison system and legislative action surrounding the pandemic
Led coverage of 2018 midterm and 2020 general election down ballot races
Broke stories on deep-rooted corruption in the Florida Department of Children and Families’ domestic violence coalition, led to statewide probe and end to a single-source contract once cemented in state law
Uncovered political posturing by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which declined to inform residents of contaminated well water until after the 2018 midterm election, stories lead to funding for cleanup around the Florida State Fire College, which had contaminated the groundwater with firefighting foam.
Previous position: Metro Intern | June - Aug. 2017
- Covered variety of breaking news, enterprise features and many A1 stories like a study of late-night drinking regulation on South Beach and a deep dive into causes behind South Florida’s infamous road rage problem
- Helped transcribe and fact check 18-month investigation of abuse within Florida’s youth detention centers. The project was nominated for a 2018 Pulitzer Prize in investigative journalism.

Covered a variety of breaking news, general assignment stories and weekend features for the Sunday newspaper
Produced reporting on long wait times at driver’s license facilities that resulted in the hiring of 900 additional state employees

Served as the Sun’s sole reporter covering the Massachusetts legislature through a Boston University semester-long program, covered pocketbook issues, transportation, the environment and the Merrimack Valley delegation

·Served as evening and weekend on-call reporter for breaking news across New England
Pitched feature stories during my time at the Globe, including a feature on a transgender student that sparked an investigation into discrimination in the Tufts University Greek life system and a data analysis of ambulance wait times that resulted in two new ambulances being deployed to serve East Boston.

Pitched, researched and wrote lifestyle feature pieces for the London area’s dominant evening paper
Fact checked and edited freelance articles for grammar, accuracy and British style under tight deadline

Edited and fact-checked all content published online and in print, including campus, city, sports, opinion, features, photo, multimedia and blog sections.
Led the newsroom of 50 writers and multimedia journalists in the daily newsroom production cycle as well as breaking news coverage
Had final editorial oversight over the print edition in InDesign and online content in Wordpress
Served as the president of Back Bay Publishing Co., working as the liaison between editorial and business boards.
Oversaw all social media posts.

Other roles held: Multimedia editor (May - Dec. 2015), Layout editor (Dec. 2014 - May 2015), News writer (Sept. - Dec. 2014)

· Back Bay Publishing Company, Boston | Chairman of the Board | May 2017- May 2018

Lead the board that governs The Daily Free Press, the independent student newspaper at Boston University
Managed the newspaper's advertising, budget, public relations, alumni network, and other business matters.
Worked closely with the office manager and other former editors to ensure the financial stability of the company
Successfully worked to put on a series of bi-monthly "FreeP Talk" speakers series and the first annual "Next Edition" student networking conference, the first of its kind in the Boston area

· BU College of Communication, Boston | Assistant to the Journalism Dept. | Sept. 2016- present

· Freelance work published in Metro Boston, USA Today College, Northwest Indiana Times, Post-Tribune

· Dean’s List | Boston University College of Communication | Sept. 2014 – May 2018

· Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper | Society of Professional Journalists | March 2016

· First Runner-Up, College Newspaper of the year| New England Society of News and Editors | April 2016

FOIA requests • HTML/CSS • Adobe Creative Suite • Spanish (conversational)

Society of Professional Journalists Florida • NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists