She holds a Master and a Ph.D. degree from University of Florida, with previous undergraduate studies at the Universidad Simon Bolivar, in Caracas, Venezuela. Her areas of interest have been in regional environmental planning and geospatial technologies (geographic information systems, remote sensing, and geostatistics) applied to urban planning and natural resources & environmental planning. Professor Rivero is originally from Caracas, Venezuela, and came to the U.S.A. with a Fulbright scholarship in 1998. Her interest in natural resources planning started in her home country while working in the Orinoco-Apure basin, and later for an environmental consultant company.