He earned his PhD in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University. His book project "Rhetorical Citizenship and the Black Freedom Movement 1954-1970," looks at African-American communities in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee as they resisted urban renewal. Before coming to Lehigh, Derek was a Predoctoral Mellon Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University, and he has taught at, among other places, the Community College of Allegheny County and the United States Naval Academy. His research interests/areas of specialization include African American Rhetoric, Rhetorical History, and the Black Freedom Movement.