Teresa Rivero ’85Ox-’87BBA-’93MPH
Grant Officer
The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation
Atlanta, Ga.
Joys of community service
It takes a high level of dedication and diligence to be in the business of giving back. Particularly in a city that takes community service as seriously as corporate Atlanta. For instance, how do you manage a legacy as extensive as The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, the private foundation supporting charitable, scientific, and educational activities and perpetuated by the estate of former Coca-Cola President Robert W. Woodruff? You start by hiring a dynamic leader like Teresa Rivero ’85Ox-’87BBA-’93MPH to serve as your grant officer.
Growing up in Miami’s Cuban community, Rivero always has understood the power of community service. As struggling political refugees, Rivero’s parents were briefly assisted by a Catholic relief agency when they arrived in the United States. Rivero’s father, always appreciative of that opportunity to prove himself, went on to become a successful entrepreneur in the Spanish-language publishing business.
Eager to explore her own talents in business, Rivero first pursued an undergraduate degree in finance at Goizueta. “The constant group work was a huge benefit,” she says. “I had to learn and manage working on assignments in group settings and balancing different personalities and work styles.”
In 1988, she headed to Honduras for a stint in the Peace Corp. Her interest in community outreach blossomed while administrating micro-lending programs for women in rural villages.
“Being a native Spanish speaker, they put me out there where it was really remote,” Rivero explains. “It’s easy to romanticize those kinds of experiences, but it was hard. Really hard.”
Never adverse to hard work, Rivero focused on the nonprofit arena when she returned to Atlanta in 1991. While pursuing a master’s degree from Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health and an MBA from Georgia State University, she was selected to serve as a project leader for an effort led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with The Boys and Girls Clubs of Atlanta.
Rivero is currently president-elect of
The Association of Emory Alumni Board of Governors where she chairs the Nominating Committee, which selects Emory Medal recipients, Pollard Turman Award recipients, alumni trustees, and Board of Governors’ members. In addition to these activities, Rivero finds time to stay fit and coach girl’s soccer. She advises anyone interested in community service to start small, perhaps by tutoring a child one-on-one.
Says Rivero, “To have an impact, I don’t think people need to work for the nonprofit sector. Goizueta graduates, with their strength of knowledge, can have such an impact in any community they’re in.”—Grayson Daughters