Damien Willis – Editor

I am Lead Reporter & Content Coach for the Las Cruces Sun-News. From 2014 to 2017, I served as the newspaper's education reporter. After a brief stint in government communications, I returned to my passion — sharing the stories of my community and helping to develop newsroom talent.

I worked to fulfill media inquiries, public records requests, issued press releases, and managed all internal and external communications on behalf of the school district. I also served as the district's records custodian. LCPS employs more than 3,700 employees and is committed to serving approximately 25,000 students each day.

I worked to fulfill all press inquiries and public records requests for the office of Third Judicial District Attorney Mark D'Antonio. I was also a grant-writer for the organization, working to secure alternative sources of funding.

Primarily an education reporter for the Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News. My beat included the Las Cruces Public Schools system, Gadsden Independent School District, Dona Ana Community College and New Mexico State University.

My goal was to bring fresh reporting and more in-depth stories to this desk.

Occasionally, I ventured outside the scope of this beat. That's when things get weird.

I contributed five profiles for the 2015 Southwest New Mexico Legislative Guide.

As a freelance reporter, I have contributed several business profiles for the Business section of the Las Cruces Sun-News.

In 2014, I wrote "Meet Your Las Cruces Professionals," an advertorial feature profiling twelve Las Cruces businesses.

For more than 14 years, I wrote a weekly entertainment/pop-culture column for "Pulse," the entertainment tabloid in the Las Cruces Sun-News. In all, I've wrote more than 810 consecutive, weekly columns.