Desirée Yépez
Knight Latin American Fellow
Quito, Ecuador
Desirée Yépez is a journalist and fact-checker for Radio Ambulante Studios. There she is part of a network of journalists throughout Latin America who collaborate on stories. She is passionate about strengthening collaborative journalism networks that focus on telling the stories of populations that are underrepresented in traditional media coverage.
Yepez is also a member of Chicas Poderosas, where she’s helped work on safety strategies for journalists working in risky situations. During the pandemic, with grant support from the International Center for Journalists, she documented and published cases of femicide to demonstrate that Ecuador also has a pandemic of gender violence.
In 2020, Yepez received the Jorge Mantilla Ortega Award, Ecuador’s most important journalism award, for her efforts to bring greater visibility to issues faced by vulnerable populations. She previously was director of content at Fundamedios, an NGO that defends freedom of expression and press in the Americas and of Ecuador Chequea, a fact checking portal. Earlier in her career, she was director of digital media at Ecuador’s public media.
- Journalism is still my answer
In times of crisis, journalism -as an agent of change- is challenged - Women Inspiring Women
The experience of others opens new paths for how I think about journalism - Trust the Process
Learning to be open to what possibilities