Immediately following her undergraduate studies, Rivera earned a Master of Social Welfare degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993.

[5] Rivera competed for and was awarded a Presidential Management Internship in 1993 and used it to rotate through the Region IX offices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

She then took a job in the Head Start Branch of the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families in San Francisco, California.

Rivera was a member of the American Association of Universities' (AAU) Task Force on Strategies for Reducing Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination.

She is a co-founder and member of the executive council of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Appliance (LACRELA).

[13] In November 2020, Rivera offered to help cover the costs of bail if any Macalester College student was arrested during protests related to the 2020 presidential general election.