Gisela Pérez de Acha
2023 RAINFOREST INVESTIGATIONS FELLOW (UNITED STATES)
Gisela Pérez de Acha reports on extremism, disinformation, and environmental issues for University of California, Berkeley's Investigative Reporting Program with a focus on digital forensics and network analysis. She is also a human rights lawyer and an open source researcher at the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab.
Pérez has a master’s degree in journalism from Berkeley, where she now teaches cybersecurity and open-source investigations for upcoming journalists in a class that she helped create.
She recently won a team Polk Award for her work in Frontline's film American Insurrection. She was also part of an Emmy Award-winning team at The New York Times for a story about the siege of Culiacán. Pérez is a cybersecurity expert and a digital safety trainer with PEN America.
Born and raised in Mexico, she speaks fluent Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese.
