Society of Professional Journalists
Improving and protecting journalism since 1909

A veteran TV political and investigative reporter, Keoki Kerr is also a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines as well as a freelance correspondent for radio networks. Since 1991, he has been a reporter at the Honolulu ABC TV affiliate, covering city government for nearly a dozen years, and also serving as an investigative, police, business and general assignment reporter. He has performed practically every job in a television newsroom, from anchor to producer to assignment editor. His reporting has been honored with 12 awards in recent years, most of them from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2006, the SPJ gave him two first-place awards for investigative and government reporting in a statewide contest. Keoki is also a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines, including the Honolulu Weekly and Honolulu Magazine. He has published stories on a variety of subjects, from a profile of 1970s pop singerYvonne Elliman to a preview of the memoirs of Ben Cayetano, the country’s first governor of Filipino ancestry. He has also been a freelance radio correspondent for ABC, NPR, CBS, AP and UPI radio networks. Some of the stories he filed for network news operations include Hawaii’s earthquake and major power outage in October of 2006, a submarine accident that killed people on a Japanese finishing boat in 2001 and various aircraft crashes. Keoki began his journalism career at 16, working as a radio reporter and news anchor while still in high school. He went on to be a reporter, anchor, news director and general manager at radio stations in Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York. He worked as a congressional press aide in Washington D.C., where he was also an editorial assistant for National Public Radio. He is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Radio TV News Directors Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also artistic director for the Gridiron Show in Honolulu, which raises money for college journalism internships. Born and raised in Hawaii, Keoki is a Punahou School graduate. In 1990, he received an undergraduate degree in government from Hamilton College in New York.