Daniel Villatoro is the regional program manager for the USAID-funded CREDIBLE project and has over a decade of experience working in the intersection of media, data, and inclusion. 

As program manager of CREDIBLE, Daniel works alongside partner organizations to build media literacy and resilience to misinformation in Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.

Prior to joining IREX, Daniel accumulated experience working in investigative reporting media, data literacy initiatives and human rights organizations. He led the foundation and growth of the Latin American LGBT+ Journalism Initiative with IWMF, worked as the founding Executive Director at  Visibles, a local human rights organization in his native Guatemala, and coordinated the School of Data program in Latin America and its fellowships with SocialTIC (Mexico). Under Daniel’s management, CREDIBLE started to work directly with media organizations to fulfill the design of the project which tackles misinformation consumption (education programs on competencies for discerning information) and content production (with alternative media piloting innovative solutions). His vision advises IREX actions in Latin America regarding supporting media freedom and democracy.

In recognition of his work and its impact, in 2022 Daniel won the “Journalist of the Year” lifetime achievement award by One Young World, the global young leaders' summit, and was chosen as a human rights fellow and an associate by Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights in 2021. His work as an investigative journalist and at different media innovation projects has been awarded multiple times by the Inter-American Press Society, Fundación Gabo, TRACE, IDEA, ICFJ and other recognized regional institutions. 

He has also managed and contributed to projects and programs for a variety of non-governmental organizations, national and international, as well as international agencies and multilateral entities, in senior management roles, providing technical and strategic support for a variety of donors. Daniel has worked as a trainer for the Organization of American States, the Interamerican Development Bank, the Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas and Columbia University.

Daniel holds a BA in communications studies from Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala, specialization studies in human rights from Columbia University, and in justice and security reporting from Universidad de San Carlos. He works in English and Spanish.