Rey Rivera, Ed.D.

Dr. Reynaldo Rivera joined Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) in Arizona on June 2016 and currently serves as President. He has over 23 years of higher education experience. As the VPL at EMCC, he provides leadership and support for developmental education, transfer education, workforce development, occupational education, learning support, and extended campuses. Dr. Rivera’s role as an academic leader is to facilitate and mesh employee innovation and creativity generated by college projects into productivity for student success. He believes in creating and fostering validating leadership environments that develop employee collaboration and empowerment.

At EMCC Dr. Rivera works collaboratively with and supports faculty and staff in numerous college initiatives that include: organizing the college for the next accreditation visit, cochairing the developmental education committee dedicated to researching and implementing best practices in developmental education, reorganizing the Learning Division to create sustainable academic and occupational programming, developing and implementing a collegewide shared governance model, and creating strategic and entrepreneurial partnerships to meet the needs of the local community. Prior to his role as VPL, Dr. Rivera taught mathematics at EMCC for over 15 years. He strived to validate students’ educational or career goals by creating positive learning environments in the classroom and through experiential learning opportunities outside the classroom.

Dr. Rivera completed his bachelor of science degree in mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin, master of science degree in mathematics at Purdue University, and doctoral degree in higher and post-secondary education at Arizona State University.