When I was growing up in New Jersey, one of the best days of each school year was when the Scholastic book fair order form came home, and my parents let me circle as many choices as I wanted. As a kid, I would also create my own books, stapling construction paper together to bind &ldquo;Diary of a School Desk&rdquo; or &ldquo;The Lost Cow.&rdquo;

After reading a biography of Nellie Bly, a journalist who went undercover to report on a mental institution, I thought, &ldquo;This is the perfect career for me.&rdquo; Not only could I write for a living, I would explore important and interesting topics.

I headed to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. After graduation, I joined the Peace Corps, teaching English in a village school in West Africa.

My first journalism jobs included covering the city of Sarasota for the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, followed by stints at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and The Miami Herald. I also worked for The Asbury Park Press &mdash; my hometown paper in Bruce Springsteen territory at the Jersey Shore.

But I was no stranger to Long Island. My mother&rsquo;s sister lived in Oakdale, and when I was a kid we would drive out often, my father cursing the traffic on the Southern State Parkway. The six cousins would sleep on cots downstairs while the grownups played Pinochle up in the dining room. One of my best memories was a trip we took on the ferry to Fire Island. A boat! To the beach! What could be more exciting?

In 1993 I joined Newsday, covering the Hispanic community and, coincidentally, Fire Island. In fact, I met my son&rsquo;s father on a July Fourth weekend at a happy hour at Flynn&rsquo;s in Ocean Bay Park. My family now spends time in Fair Harbor or Ocean Beach every summer.

News stories I have worked on include the Long Island Rail Road shootings and the crash of Flight 800. For the latter, I share a newsroom Pulitzer Prize. I became an assistant Long Island editor, then feature writer and columnist. I have been an adjunct professor at Columbia University&rsquo;s Graduate School of Journalism. And, I wrote a real book &ndash; not one stapled together by me &ndash; called &ldquo;The Match: &lsquo;Savior Siblings&rsquo; and One Family&rsquo;s Battle to Heal Their Daughter.&rdquo;

I currently write for Explore Long Island, covering families.

Beth Whitehouse

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Beth turned her passion for writing into a successful journalism career. She joined Newsday in 1993 and covered some of the most important stories of the past few decades. Today, she is committed to highlighting the experiences of families across Long Island.

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Newsday Journalists: Beth Whitehouse

Newsday

I never set out to be a journalist. My plan was college, then law school.

The early part of my life spent on a rural farm in the Catskills left little time for TV, but storytelling abounded in my family. After moving to Brooklyn, my favorite playground was the neighborhood library where I discovered exotic people, places &ndash; and learned to dream. During summers on the farm, I read endlessly, fueled by the love of words my mom instilled early in her 11 kids.

While my parents read the New York Daily News regularly, I&rsquo;d never heard of nor seen a Black journalist until I began reading Earl Caldwell&rsquo;s column in the newspaper. With his cropped Afro and serious stare, he was unapologetically Black, a bold crusader with a captivating style.

My law school plans were scuttled the day I saw State Police drag a fellow Black student from her car and roughly handcuff her at SUNY-New Paltz. A group of students began a tug of war to physically free the student from the cops, who trained their weapons on the unarmed crowd until the group relented.

The incident set off a wave of protests in the bucolic upstate Hudson Valley college town and triggered demands for changes in campus policing. I began writing for the Black campus newspaper, the Fahari. For me, it was the beginning of a quest to join and impact an industry that controlled the words, images and perceptions of those without power &ndash; and where faces like mine were few.

My more than 40-year career as a reporter and editor has taken me from the Frederick, Maryland, News-Post to the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader to the Hartford Courant, the Chicago Tribune and to Newsday, as the features editor. In ways large and small, seen and unseen, I&rsquo;ve made a difference at each stop. My journey, far from what I planned, has been worth it.

At Newsday, I&rsquo;m proudest of my contributions to the &quot;Summer of Hell,&quot; about the Penn Station reconstruction work that upended LIRR riders&rsquo; lives for months; the NY Emmy Award-winning project &quot;On the Shoulders of Giants,&quot; which sprouted from our concerns that aging Long Island civil rights activists and recent gains from George Floyd&rsquo;s killing at the hands of police would fade; and to &quot;Camp Siegfried: Revisiting a dark chapter in LI history.&quot;

In Explore LI, we have revamped our Real Estate and Travel sections into more user-friendly, exciting experiences for all our readers, especially millennials. Our Nostalgia content delights readers with walks down memory lane. Our Lifestyle and Entertainment teams are exploring more creative, engaging ways to tell unique Long Island stories. And upgrades in our digital and print offerings provide current and future subscribers the very best. Because they deserve it.

Jeffrey L. Williams

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Jeffrey never planned on being a journalist. Inspired by his mother&#39;s love of words, he embarked on a career in newspapers, making a mark at every stop on his journey. As a writer and editor at Newsday, he continues to share news and information that helps Long Islanders live their best lives.

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Newsday Journalists: Jeffrey L. Williams

I joined Newsday in February 1986 to work in the New York City edition and immediately took part in covering several major crime stories. Working under legendary Newsday editor Bob Greene, I played a role in the paper&rsquo;s massive coverage of the 1986 Mafia Commission trial. Soon afterward, I was made lead reporter for the trial of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz. Both the commission coverage and the Goetz trial gave notice that Newsday was a force to be reckoned with in the media world.

I came to journalism indirectly. I was born in the Bronx and after studying media at Ithaca College, where I graduated, I continued studies in film and media at Michigan State University. My Michigan studies were interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Army, where I was assigned to work in a press office north of Saigon. The experience was an eye opener to the world of reporting, particularly war and international coverage. After the military, I lived in Europe, doing freelance journalism, including articles for Newsday about the U.S. military in Europe. After returning home, I earned a law degree.

In Newsday, I see a newspaper committed to reporting the news without sensationalism and with a deep probing level of reporting. My beat finds me covering the New York City Police Department. The beat is synergistic for Newsday because not only do a great many cops live on Long Island &ndash; close to one-third of the force &ndash; but the subject of crime is something of deep interest and concern to other Long Islanders who work in New York City. How the Big Apple goes dictates the impact for Long Islanders.

What I like about Newsday is the collegial working atmosphere, which has allowed me to do some of my best work, including coverage of mafia trials and the Gilgo Beach killings. For Gilgo, my biggest stories were about the genetic genealogy used in the investigations, telling the tragic stories of victims Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata, as well as the inside story of how the investigation led to the arrest of suspect Rex Heuermann.

Education: BS Ithaca College, MA Michigan State University, JD New York Law School 
 
Anthony DeStefano&nbsp;covers law enforcement,&nbsp; criminal justice and legal affairs for Newsday from New York City.&nbsp; He joined Newsday in 1986 after working as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Fairchild News Service&nbsp;and the Hartford Courant.

Honors and Awards: Part of a team of New York Newsday reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting in 1992;&nbsp; New York Emmy Awards, 2019-2020 for &ldquo;Gilgo Beach Investigations, 10 Years, 10 Bodies, 0 Arrests.

Anthony M. DeStefano

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From witnessing war in the U.S. Army to covering major crimes at Newsday, Anthony has dedicated his career to pursuing truth and justice. He uses his investigative skills and legal background to hold powerful institutions accountable and uncover stories that impact the lives of Long Islanders.

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Newsday Journalists: Anthony DeStefano

Melissa Azofeifa

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