Printable Biography of John Quinones

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John Quiñones is a co-anchor of "Primetime" and was most recently a correspondent for "Primetime Thursday" and "20/20." He had previously been a correspondent for "PrimeTime Live" since November 1991. Quiñones has also served as a co-anchor of "Downtown," covering unique stories for the newsmagazine that premiered in October 1999.

Quiñones' recent work includes a "Primetime" hidden camera report in which he went undercover to reveal how clinics were performing unnecessary surgical procedures as part of a major nation-wide insurance scam. He reported on a religious sect in Northern Arizona that forces its young female members to take part in polygamous marriages. He also reported on such diverse topics as the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, the plight of conjoined twins and the ongoing search for the notorious Zodiac killer. He followed along with a group of would-be Mexican immigrants as they attempted to cross into the U.S. via the treacherous route known as "The Devil's Highway." And Quiñones traveled to Israel for a CINE Award-winning report about suicide bombers.

During the second war in Iraq, Quiñones reported on life inside a busy U.S. military field hospital, and also on the role of female Air Force pilots. On September 11, 2001, Quiñones followed a mother and her daughters as they desperately, and successfully, searched for their husband and father thought trapped in one of the fallen World Trade Center towers.

In September 1999, Quiñones anchored and reported a critically acclaimed ABC News special called "Latin Beat," focusing on the wave of Latin talent sweeping the United States, the impact of the recent population explosion and how it will affect the nation as a whole. He was awarded an ALMA Award from the National Council of La Raza. Quiñones also contributed reports to ABC News' unprecedented 24-hour, live, global Millennium broadcast, which won the George Foster Peabody Award.

His reports for "20/20" have included an in-depth look at the unprecedented lawsuit against the Cuban government by a woman who claimed she unknowingly married a spy; an exclusive interview with a Florida teenager who brutally killed her adoptive mother; and a look at sex abuse in schools. Quiñones was honored with a Gabriel Award for his poignant report that followed a young man to Colombia, as he made an emotional journey to reunite with his birth mother after two decades. Quiñones covered the Albanian refugee crisis for a "20/20" one-hour special on Macedonia and Albania.

Quiñones won six national Emmy Awards for his "PrimeTime Live," "Burning Questions" and "20/20" work. He was awarded an Emmy for his coverage of the Congo's virgin rainforest, which also won the Ark Trust Wildlife Award.

Quiñones has also been honored with a World Hunger Media Award and a Citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for "To Save the Children," his 1990 report on the homeless children of Bogota. He received a 1990 Emmy Award for "Window in the Past," his look at the Yanomamo Indians.

Quiñones joined ABC News in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami, providing reports for "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" and other ABC News broadcasts. He was one of the few American journalists reporting from Panama City during the U.S. invasion in December 1989.

Quiñones has reported on a wide range of stories originating from Central America, including the political and economic turmoil in Argentina and civil war in El Salvador. In 1988, Quiñones filed more than 50 reports from Panama, detailing the country's turmoil and U.S. efforts to oust Manuel Noriega.

In April 1990, Quiñones received a National Emmy Award for his work on the ABC documentary "Burning Questions — The Poisoning of America," which aired in September 1988.

Prior to joining ABC News, Quiñones was a reporter with WBBM-TV in Chicago. He won two Emmy Awards for his 1980 reporting on the plight of illegal aliens from Mexico. From 1975 to 1978, Quiñones was a news editor at KTRH radio in Houston, Texas. During that period, he also was an anchor-reporter for KPRC-TV.

Quiñones received a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech communications from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He received a master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism.

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