Prior to joining the Times, Booker worked as an assistant professor with Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism based in Doha, Qatar as well as a freelance video journalist for Al Jazeera, TIME.com, Global Post and Slate.com. Before Northwestern, Booker worked as a video and multimedia journalist for the Chicago Tribune where he wrote, produced, shot and edited video and multimedia content for the paper's website and broadcast partners. In addition, he wrote for the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine, Books, National and Perspective sections.