John Quiñones Biography
John Quiñones is an American journalist working for ABC NEWS as a correspondent, reporting across Nightline, 20/20, and Good Morning America. He joined ABC News in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami.
John Quiñones Education
Quiñones joined St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, after finishing his education at Brackenridge High School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications. While in college, he was a member of the Sigma Beta-Zeta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
Quiñones furthered his studies at the Columbia School of Journalism, where he obtained his Master’s degree. He also has two honorary degrees, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Utah Valley University awarded in 2016 and a Doctor of Letters from Davis & Elkins College awarded in 2014.
While in high school, he was picked to participate in a federal anti-poverty program, Upward Bound, which prepared inner-city high school students for college.
John Quiñones Career
Quiñones works for ABC NEWS as a correspondent, reporting across Nightline, 20/20, and Good Morning America. He has served the network for over 4 decades. During this time, he has delivered exclusive reports for all programs and platforms. He has also anchored “What Would You Do?” and “Primetime.”
Quiñones covered Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen, who was brutally killed and sparked a #MeToo movement in the military, for 20/20. That report also included an exclusive interview with Ryan McCarthy, Secretary of the Army. After his report, Congress passed the “I Am Vanessa Guillen” bill, and the U.S. military made big changes in how they handle sexual harassment cases.
Quiñones held the first exclusive network TV interview with Canelo Álvarez, a Mexican professional boxer who won several world championships in four different weight classes, in 2021. That report appeared in a primetime ABC News Hispanic Heritage Month special and on Nightline.
Quiñones provided coverage for Chilean miners’ tragedy in 2010. He was also the first journalist to secure an exclusive interview with the first survivor, Mario Sepulveda, who spoke about their horrendous ordeal. Additionally, he had an exclusive interview with singer/actor Marc Anthony, who discussed his split and pending divorce from Jennifer Lopez for the first time.
Quiñones extensively reported on a religious sect in northern Arizona that forced its young female members to engage in polygamous marriages. He went undercover to expose how clinics performed unnecessary surgical procedures as part of a big nationwide insurance scam. He also followed a group of would-be Mexican immigrants as they tried to cross into the U.S. through the treacherous route known as “The Devil’s Highway.”
Early Career;
Gomez went to Israel for a CINE Award-winning report about suicide bombers. In September 1999, he served as the anchor of a critically praised ABC News special entitled “Latin Beat.” Latin Beat concentrated on the wave of Latin talent sweeping the U.S., the effect of the recent population explosion and how it will impact the nation as a whole.
Quiñones extensively reported on a religious sect in northern Arizona that forced its young female members to engage in polygamous marriages. He went undercover to expose how clinics performed unnecessary surgical procedures as part of a big nationwide insurance scam. He also followed a group of would-be Mexican immigrants as they tried to cross into the U.S. through the treacherous route known as “The Devil’s Highway.”
Quiñones was one of the few American journalists to report from Panama City during the U.S. invasion in December 1989. He joined ABC News in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami. In this role, he delivered reports for “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” and other ABC News broadcasts.
Before ABC NEWS, Quiñones reported for WBBM-TV in Chicago. He received 2 Emmys for reporting on the plight of illegal aliens from Mexico in 1980. He was news editor at KTRH radio in Houston, Texas, from 1975 to 1978. During that time, he also anchored and reported for KPRC-TV.
Awards
Quiñones went to Israel for a CINE Award-winning report about suicide bombers. In September 1999, he served as the anchor of a critically praised ABC News special entitled “Latin Beat.” Latin Beat concentrated on the wave of Latin talent sweeping the U.S., the effect of the recent population explosion, and how it will impact the nation as a whole.
The National Council of La Raza honored him with an ALMA Award. He also contributed reports to ABC News’ 24-hour, live, global “The New Millennium” broadcast, which received the George Foster Peabody Award. While reporting for 20/20. He delivered an in-depth perspective on the unprecedented case against the Cuban government by a woman who alleged she unknowingly married a spy. He also exclusively interviewed a Florida teenager who brutally murdered her adoptive mother.
Quiñones’s report about a young man’s gripping journey to Colombia to reunite with his birth mother after two decades won a Gabriel Award. In Central America, he has covered political and economic turmoil in Argentina and civil war in El Salvador. In the 80s, he spent almost 10 years in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama as a reporter for “World News Tonight.”
1990s
Quiñones received 7 national Emmy Awards for his work on Burning Questions, Primetime Live, and 20/20. He also won an Emmy for covering the Congo’s virgin rainforest. That report also won the Ark Trust Wildlife Award. In 1999, he won an Emmy for Window in the Past, which looked into the Yanomamo Indians.
Quiñones was honored with a National Emmy Award for his role in ABC’s Burning Questions — The Poisoning of America. MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the country’s oldest and most prominent Latino civil rights organization, acknowledged him with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Quiñones’s contributions to journalism earned him the Carr Van Anda Award from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in 2021. He also won the “Inspire: Visionary Leadership Award” from the Anne Frank School in San Antonio for “What Would You Do?” scenarios that revealed antisemitism in the United States.
Quiñones’s national and international reports earned him the RTDNA’s John F. Hogan Award. His 1990 report on the homeless children of Bogota, titled To Save the Children, was recognized with a World Hunger Media Award and a Citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. He earned the First Prize in International Reporting and the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for his piece on “Modern Slavery-Children Sugar Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic.”
John Quiñones Age
Quiñones was born on May 23, 1952, in San Antonio, Texas, United States of America. He is 74 years old as of 2026. Quiñones celebrates his birthday on May 23rd.
John Quiñones Height
Quiñones stands at an approximate height of 5 feet and 7 inches.
John Quiñones Family
Quiñones was born to Maria and Bruno H. Quiñones. He has Mexican roots. Even so, he has not disclosed more information about his parents. It is also not known whether Quiñones has any siblings.
John Quiñones Wife
Quiñones has been married twice. He was first married to Nancy Loftus from 1988 to 2009. Following his divorce, he remarried Deanna White in 2010. He has three children, including Nicco and Julian.
Julian is an Emmy Award-winning TV producer and director of photography for CNN. There, he has produced big documentary segments, like The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper and features with chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. He has received two News Emmy Awards for his outstanding documentary and news programming.
Nicco celebrates his birthday on March 12th. On March 12, 2026, he posted a photo of Nicco on his Instagram account and captioned, “The most special of days, today: my son’s…birthday! So proud of how far you’ve come, my boy – inspired by your strength to forge ahead…”
Nicco is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. He works closely with ABC News. In 2024, he won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for his contribution to ABC’s It Happened Here: One Year in Uvalde. He also serves as the founder of Quiñones Productions, based in Miami, Florida.
John Quiñones Net Worth
Quiñones has an estimated net worth ranging between $1 million – $5 million, which he has earned through being a journalist.
John Quiñones Salary
Quiñones earns an annual salary ranging between $40,000 – $ 110,500.