Title Correspondent Company WABC-TV New York Bio N.J. Burkett joined WABC-TV's Eyewitness News Team in 1989. His distinctive storytelling, production skills and award-winning international reporting have added a unique dimension to Channel 7's news coverage. Over more than two decades, N.J. has reported on everything from war and diplomacy to crime and politics; from aviation disasters to natural disasters, race relations and police misconduct. On September 11, 2001, after two jets struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, N.J. and his news photographer narrowly escaped the collapse of the South Tower. Their work was later seen on television news broadcasts across the nation and around the world. N.J. spent nearly three months covering the war in Iraq in 2003. He covered the terrorist bombings in Madrid and London, as well as the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, the Israeli-Hamas War in Gaza, three Israeli national elections and the death of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. He witnessed the historic Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and chronicled the Palestinian popular uprising, known as the Intifadeh, in a series of overseas assignments. N.J. was the only local television correspondent to report from Japan after the historic 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident there, and the first to report from Haiti after their devastating earthquake. N.J. broke the landmark story that three New York Police detectives had been indicted in the shooting death of Sean Bell, an unarmed motorist. He was Eyewitness News' lead reporter for the Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima and Martha Stewart trials. When a growing number of homeless New Yorkers complained that the city's shelters were unsafe, N.J. went undercover for several weeks disguised as a homeless man, sleeping in one of New York's most notorious men's shelters. N.J.'s work has been honored with several of the most prestigious awards in American television news. He is a two-time winner of the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television Digital News Association and a four-time Emmy Award winner, including the Emmy for Outstanding On-Camera Achievement. N.J. has been nominated for the Emmy fifteen times. He shared the George Foster Peabody Award and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award with his colleagues at ABC News for his reporting on the September 11th terrorist attacks. He was presented with the Allen B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year Award by Montclair State University for his "significant contributions to the field of broadcasting." N.J. is president of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences New York Chapter and was elected to the Board of Governors in 2007. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Academy, the New York Press Club and the Inner Circle of City Hall Journalists. N.J., whose full name is Newton Jones Burkett, was a reporter for WFSB-TV in Hartford, CT before joining WABC-TV. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Master's in International Affairs from Columbia University.