Gisela Pérez de Acha

Gisela Pérez de Acha is an open source investigative reporter specializing on extremism, disinformation and environmental issues. She has a Polk Award for her work in Frontline’s film American Insurrection and was part of an Emmy award-winning team at the New York Times for a story about The Siege of Culiacán. Gisela pioneered a unique partnership between the Investigative Reporting Program and the Human Rights Center to teach a first-of-its-kind Open Source Investigative Reporting class at Berkeley Journalism. She taught OSINT at Under the Volcano, a prestigious writer’s fellowship, and works as a cybersecurity consultant with PEN America. Born and raised in Mexico, Gisela was trained as a lawyer before becoming a journalist. She speaks fluent Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.