She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instructions with emphasis in Applied Linguistics from Penn State University. She has extensive experience teaching and designing curriculum for bilingual students in different contexts. She has collaborated and co-directed with Dr. Catherine Mazak various projects funded by USDA. She has taught in bilingual programs in California, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. Dr. Rivera is one of the co-founders of CieBA. She is currently the Interim Director of the English Department. Her current research interests are in the areas of curriculum development and Dynamic Assessment in the L2 Classroom, non-literal use of language, pragmatics and discourse analysis.