Jeff Burnside

Investigative Reporter

Jeff has been an investigative reporter with KOMO 4’s Problem Solvers unit since October 2012. He’s a Seattle native who has lived in Wedgwood, Bellevue, Kirkland, Queen Anne, downtown Seattle and Whidbey Island. He’s a graduate of Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communications.

Jeff has worked as a reporter, anchor, segment producer and Executive Producer at other stations in Seattle, as well as Kansas City, Spokane, Boston and Miami. His investigations and other reporting have earned more than 20 journalism awards including a national Investigative Reporters and Editors award, a national Clarion award, a National Press Club award, two national nominations for the Humane Society’s Ark Awards, a bunch of regional Emmy’s, and statewide “best of show” reporting awards. He’s also been honored many times for his community service and volunteer work.

He’s done groundbreaking reporting of the Aryan Nations and other white supremacy groups, corruption, scams, animal abuse, and environmental issues. His reporting has helped change in state laws, close unscrupulous businesses and put more than a dozen people behind bars.

He’s a frequent speaker and moderator on journalism and related issues. He’s been awarded five journalism fellowships including the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ TransAtlantic Reporters Network, the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at USC Annenberg, Carnegie Mellon’s Steinbrenner Institute, Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, and the Metcalf Institute. He’s been an invited panelist for many years for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Seminars for leading scientists, and other science and media confabs through Compass.

Jeff’s environmental reporting has taken him to Bali, Norway’s Arctic Circle, Panamanian jungles, throughout the Caribbean, Canada, and Hawaii while covering issues like climate change, coral reef decline, and overfishing. Jeff was the first reporter to broadcast live from inside Aquarius, the world’s only undersea research lab, on the bottom of the ocean nine miles off Key Largo. While inside a research submarine, Jeff also plunged nearly three miles to the bottom of the Atlantic for a story on biomedical research of amazing medical properties of deep sea sponges.

Jeff serves as Vice President for the Society of Environmental Journalists, the largest such group of professional reporters in the world. He served as chairman of SEJ’s well-regarded national conference in 2011 that set all-time attendance records.

His very first journalism award came during his part-time reporting job while attending Lake Washington High School working for the Eastside Journal in Kirkland (7 cents per column inch!).

Jeff collects historic newspapers, loves exploring small towns, enjoys Alpine hiking (he summited Mt. Rainier) and reading non-fiction.

After 20 years away from the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Jeff says it’s great to be home and with a professional team like KOMO 4.

Recent stories by Jeff Burnside