our TEAM

Toni Rivera
Managing Director, Communities of Practice

Toni K. Rivera serves as the managing director for communities of practice at the HAVI. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Community Education from the University of WI-Milwaukee and completed her Master of Science in Business Management in 2007 from Cardinal Stritch University. Ms. Rivera has nearly 30 years of non-profit management experience and expertise working with underserved populations, at-risk children and families and advocating for social justice and self-sufficiency across non-profit sectors. As a Latina, Ms. Rivera is bilingual in Spanish and English. Specific expertise includes program and community partnership development, managing donor/funder relationships including grant writing experience and organizational development, capacity building and coaching. Ms. Rivera spent nearly ten years at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin managing nationally recognized violence prevention and intervention program, Project Ujima, focused on trauma informed care, support services for victims of community interpersonal violence and youth development. Additionally, Ms. Rivera is a founding member of the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (NNHVIP, now the HAVI) started in 2009. Ms. Rivera served as the President and Chief Executive Director at Centro Hispano Milwaukee (Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc.) advocating for the Latino population through dual language early childhood education including early head start and head start programs, elderly housing, adult education, and immigration community services. In this role, Ms. Rivera provided vision and oversight of the programs and services offered through Centro Hispano Milwaukee reaching over 15,000 people annually. Most recently, Ms. Rivera was the Executive Director of Families and Schools Together (FAST), an international education nonprofit that empowers families to build strong relationships with schools through the FAST program and Fast Institute for Family Engagement. Recognized by the United Nations as a top eleven family skills program the world, FAST has been disseminated in 45 US states and 23 countries internationally.