Nikki Battiste Biography
Nikki Battiste is an award winning journalist currently working as a CBS News national correspondent based in New York. She joined the network in May 2017 as a freelance correspondent.
Nikki Battiste Career
Battiste is a recipient of an Emmy and Peabody-awards. Her reports appear across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including “CBS Mornings,” the “CBS Evening News,” “48 Hours,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” and CBS News 24/7. In addition, she has been a fill-in anchor on CBS News 24/7, the “CBS Weekend News,” and for the “What to Watch” segment on “CBS Mornings.”
Her groundbreaking investigations in 2018 into the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal received critical acclaim. In a television first, her original report led to two clergy abuse survivors sitting down face-to-face with the priest they say abused them as children. Furthermore, Battiste and her team uncovered allegations of sexual abuse against a priest still in active ministry in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese during a separate investigation with the CBS News investigative unit. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, presided over the archdiocese. Following her questioning DiNardo about the allegations, the priest was removed from ministry and a week later, law enforcement executed a search warrant for secret archives in the archdiocese.
Two months after her August 2018 exclusive interview with now former Washington, D.C., Archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl, he resigned from his position. She further also broke the story of nuns sexually abusing children, which led to more than forty more victims coming forward. In February 2019, Battiste traveled to Rome to cover Pope Francis’ Vatican summit addressing the clergy abuse crisis.
Nikki Battiste CBS News
During her time at CBS News, she has covered the gun debate in America and was the first to report on armed teachers in classrooms, which sparked a national conversation. Additionally, Battiste has reported and written several stories for the “CBS News Evening News” series “Eye on America,” including a teachers strike in Sacramento and the debate over arming college students on campus. She also sat down with five sisters sexually abused by the same priest for an “Eye on America” report. In addition, Battiste’s feature pieces have included a look at groundbreaking brain research that could help with suicide and mental illness treatment. Her feature pieces also look at revolutionary food contamination technology and the wild horse crisis in the American West.
In addition, she has also covered breaking news for the Network, including the coronavirus pandemic, the Indianapolis FedEx shooting and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Battiste has also covered Hurricane Michael in Florida, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the case of Colorado missing mother, Kelsey Berreth; the El Paso Walmart shooting and the New Zealand mosque shooting.
She began her career at CBS News as a freelance correspondent in May 2017 for CBS Newspath, the Network’s 24-hour television newsgathering service for CBS stations and broadcasters around the world. Battiste also reported on the search for four missing men in Pennsylvania, the Parkland school shooting and the Austin bomber.
Prior to joining CBS, she was an award-winning ABC News producer and reporter based in New York for over six years. Battiste traveled the world to cover breaking news and feature stories for all ABC News broadcast platforms. Such as “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight,” “Nightline,” “20/20” and ABCNews.com.
Nikki Battiste ABC News
At ABC News, she reported extensively on the Amanda Knox case from Perugia, Italy, and the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 from Perth, Australia. In addition, Battiste covered the Newtown and Virginia Tech school shootings, the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, the San Bernardino attack, the Orlando nightclub massacre and the Brussels bombings. She also reported on the 2016 Presidential Election, Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S., the Ebola crisis and Hurricane Sandy.
Battiste investigated radicalization in America, the rising costs of cancer drugs, medical tourism and bullying in schools. Furthermore, she was the first journalist in the world to sit-down for an interview with Amanda Knox, after covering the Italian murder case for six years. Battiste booked and produced Diane Sawyer’s ABC News exclusive interview with Knox in an hour-long special “Murder Mystery: Amanda Knox Speaks.” She co-produced other Diane Sawyer specials, including America’s shrinking middle class and interviews with the youngest woman on death row. Battiste also produced and booked Newtown’s heroic teacher, Kaitlin Roig, just a few hours after Roig saved her first-grade students’ lives by hiding them in a bathroom.
In addition, she also co-produced numerous “20/20” specials and prison interviews, including the Casey Anthony murder trial, the “Honeymoon Killer,” “Life of Lies,” and “Black Widow.” At “20/20,” Battiste’s own investigation uncovered evidence that helped exonerate a law enforcement officer, who spent 20 years in prison wrongfully convicted of sexually abusing his own children.
Nikki Battiste Early Life
She began her journalism career as an NBC News Page, working on “Saturday Night Live” and “Today,” before working as a production associate at “Today.” for three. Battiste is a recipient of multiple Emmy, Edward R Murrow and CINE Golden Eagle awards, and a Peabody, Deadline and Front Page awards.
She was born and raised in Newport, Pennsylvania a small rural town in Amish. Battiste graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. At the university, she was co-captain of their Division I Field Hockey team. Battiste resides in New York with her husband and children.
Nikki Battiste Age
Battiste was born in Newport, Pennsylvania a small rural town in Amish and is about 44 years old as of 2024.
Nikki Battiste Height
She stands at an average height of 5 feet 5 inches (1.60m) tall.
Nikki Battiste Education
Battiste graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. At the university, she was co-captain of their Division I Field Hockey team.
Nikki Battiste Family
She was born and raised in Newport, Pennsylvania a small rural town in Amish. Battiste calls herself a country girl and is an equestrian and a hockey girl. She loves her parents and her mother’s name is Judy Battiste. Her father, Nick Battiste is a retired high school English teacher and a wrestling, track and field coach. She has a sibling younger brother Brandon Battiste.
Nikki Battiste Husband
Battiste tied the knot with her Welshman husband Dean Simpson in a fairy tale wedding on 5 September, 2016 in Oheka Castle, Huntington, New York. He works as a program director and soccer coach.
Nikki Battiste Children
She is a mother to two children, a son Beau Nicholas Battiste – Simpson born in 2020 and a daughter Viviana Hope Battiste- Simpson born in 2023. Battiste struggled with secondary infertility while trying to conceive her second child at 42 years. She went through several rounds of IVF treatments and the first two failed.
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