Her research focuses on women's literacy, social welfare reform, and race/ethnic/gender health disparities. Dr. Rivera is the author of the award-winning book, Laboring to Learn: Women's Literacy & Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era, University of Illinois Press, 2008. Her current research examines effective models of delivering health information to minority populations with limited literacy and limited English proficiency. Dr. Rivera is a Co-Principal Investigator on the U54 project: “Hispanic-American End-of-Life Outcomes: Patient, Provider, & Institutional Effects.” Dr. Rivera is also the director of the Latino Leadership Opportunity Program at the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Public Policy, and will be providing intensive social research methods training for undergraduate students on this research project.