Dr. Yonaira “Yoni” M. Rivera (pronouns: she, her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Rutgers University’s School of Communication & Information. Originally from Puerto Rico, Dr. Rivera’s scholarship seeks to understand the processes that impact access to and quality of health information for Latino/a/x audiences and mechanisms for and determinants to adequately communicate this content through trusted community sources via digital and social media. Her work uses qualitatively-driven mixed methods and community-based participatory research to study health misinformation, health promotion, and community engagement. She specifically focuses on working with communities to develop culturally-tailored cancer educational materials for Latino/a/x audiences, understanding how engagement with health (mis)information on social media can impact health decisions, and outlining the role social media in health communication and community mobilization. She conducts research in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Rivera was a community health educator through the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Center for Reducing Cancer Health Disparities. She co-founded Puerto Rico Stands, a grassroots initiative that worked alongside Puerto Rican community leaders on empowerment and skill-building efforts to create a more resilient community post Hurricane María. Dr. Rivera has a Ph.D. in Social & Behavioral Sciences from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an MPH in Behavioral Sciences & Health Education from Emory University.