Daniel Wheaton is the data reporter for the Midwest Newsroom, a collaboration of public radio stations in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. In this role, he collaborates with station reporters across the region on data-driven reporting projects, obtaining public records and producing data visualizations. The core stations involved in this collaboration are KCUR 98.3, St. Louis Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio and Nebraska Public Media News, with additional partnerships including Harvest Public Media, Kansas News Service, Side Effects Public Media. His position is based at Nebraska Public Media, where he has worked since 2021. The Midwest Newsroom has received awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, PMJA, RTDNA and several statewide journalism associations in the 4-state region. 

In 2023-24 Wheaton helped with the creation of The Nebraska News Map, a research project led by professor Jessica Walsh to better understand the local news landscape across the state. Wheaton handled the geospatial and data portions of the project. In addition to teaching data journalism and communication design courses at CoJMC, Wheaton also assists the depth reporting course by providing editing support, help with records requests and graphics editing. 

Before joining Nebraska Public Media, Daniel worked as a graphics and data reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune from 2016 to 2021. There, he focused on breaking news graphics and data visualization and hosted the daily news podcast "San Diego News Fix." He received multiple awards from The San Diego Society of Professional Journalists, The San Diego Press Club, The California Newspaper Publishers' Association and SABEW. As an undergraduate, Wheaton had internships at The Omaha World-Herald, Newsday, Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, USA Today, KFOR 1240 and The Paragould Daily Press. He also held multiple positions at The Daily Nebraskan. 
Wheaton holds a Master's Degree in Geography from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln ('25) with a focus on Cartography and Geographic Information Science as well as the professional certificate in Geographic Information Science. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln ('15). 

Wheaton is also an assistant coach for University Speech and Debate. He primarily coaches limited preparation and pubic address events. He competed on the team from 2011-2015 and is a national finalist in persuasive speaking.