From the borderlands of San Diego/Tijuana, Ms. Rivera moved to San Francisco in 1998.  Her early career included work with children, youth and families providing enrichment and direct services. She found a passion for the non-profit community development sector and has over a decade of non-profit administrative experience. 

Ms. Rivera joined Galería de la Raza in 2004 and served as the Business Manager through 2007; she later joined the Board of Directors in 2010. In 2012, she once again returned to the Galería as the Executive Director.  Currently, her work explores the intersections of community development, art and social practice with a focus on creating equitable and sustainable communities whose practices center on understanding how power, access, and resources can be used in the service of justice. 

Prior to that, she worked as the lead Compliance Specialist at Community Initiatives, a nonprofit fiscal sponsor located in San Francisco, CA. Project and contract management was a central function of her position. She provided operation administration for a $16 million revenue portfolio. The portfolio, composed of contributions from private foundations, local city, and federal government agencies provided funding to support the operations of 90 fiscally sponsored projects. In the project management capacity, she provided in-depth one-on-one counseling to projects on budget development, program goals, and work plan and evaluation designs to accommodate each project’s unique operations. 

She is a Board Member of the Chicana/Latina Foundation of Northern California, whose mission is to empower Chicana/Latinas in higher education through scholarship and leadership training.  In addition, Ms. Rivera serves as the Corridor Co-Coordinator for the Mission Bernal Merchants Association, a group that works to implement beautification and safety projects in her local neighborhood.    She has lived in the Mission Bernal neighborhood for the last 7 years with her life partner, Sarah Jiménez.