Suzanne Rivera is the Associate Vice President for Research Services at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She oversees a variety of academic support programs, including four Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), laboratory worker protection, and export controls. In addition, Dr. Rivera is responsible for several large campus service units, such as laboratory animal resources, the libraries, and a number of scientific core facilities. She has been at UT Southwestern since 2003.

Prior to arriving at UT, Dr. Rivera spent seven years in the Office of Research Administration at the University of California-Irvine. As Director of Research Protections at UCI, she had responsibility for the operation of three IRBs, one IACUC, and one rDNA Use Committee. From 1993 to 1996, she worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in the San Francisco Regional Office, first as a Presidential Management Intern and later as a Program Specialist with the Administration for Children and Families. Dr. Rivera has a BA from Brown University, a Master of Social Welfare degree from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas.