Upbringing

Born in the year 1976, Erin Isabelle Burnett graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She was born and also raised in the state of Maryland and she is the youngest child of Esther Margaret and Kenneth King Burnett who was a corporate attorney. She went to St Andrew’s School in Delaware and she graduated in 1994. She returned to her school in the year 2009 to give the commencement speech.

She went to Williams College in Massachusetts where she studied political science and economics. While she was an undergraduate student, she played field hockey and Lacrosse. She was very talented with her hands and her mind. She was multi-talented and considered to be a very balanced and smart college student.

Journalism Career

When USA Today asked Erin about who her mentor has been during her career, Erin was happy to share the credit to people who have influenced her, “I have had several during my career, in different ways. One of them is Willow Bay, who's currently at the USC journalism school. Tom Brokaw was a great mentor for me, and still is. Mark Haines was my co-anchor on CNBC, and he was just an absolute wonderful partner. To mention my career and who's been important, he would be right there at the top. Someone said to me to look where you would be in five years. From where you are, what are people doing in 5-10 years? Someone told me that and at the time I was an investment banking analyst. I was learning a lot, and it was a phenomenal opportunity, but I looked at people 5-10 years in the future, and I didn't want to be doing that. When you're young, 5-10 years seems like such a big horizon; you're not thinking like that. It was very grounding for me to be told that, and that's why I wasn't afraid to leave banking and go into media.”

Burnett started her career as financial analyst at Goldman Sachs where she specialized in mergers, corporate finance, and acquisitions. She worked for the mergers and acquisition department that dealt with corporate finance. While working as a financial analyst, she was given a position at the CNN as a booker and writer for the television program, Moneyline. She left this position to go to work as the vice president of digital media for Citigroup. Afterwards, Burnett went to Bloomberg Television work as an anchor and as a stock editor. This starting experience would come in handy as she climbed up the ranks as a television anchor.

Before starting her career at CNN, Burnett was with CNBC as co-anchor for the Squawk on the Street Program and the Street Signs show. She also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press program, Morning Joe at MSNBC, and Today with the NBC Nightly News. She made some occasional appearances on shows like The Celebrity Apprentice where she served as an advisor to the show’s host, Donald Trump.