Mónica Rivera was born in Puerto Rico in 1972. In 1999 she received a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD Scholarship). She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993 and a Bachelor of Architecture in 1994 from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Scholarship). She worked for the firm Architecture Research Office (ARO) in New York for three years. In Barcelona, where she has been living since 1999, she worked for the Editorial Gustavo Gili from 2000 to 2004. She has been a guest Professor of architecture at the ESARQ, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya from 1999 to 2002, Professor of third year Interior Design Studio focusing on domestic space at Elisava Escola de Disseny, Barcelona from 2001 to 2008, the Eugene McDermott Centennial Visiting Professor, School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin in 2017 and Visiting Professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis from 2015 to 2017. She is currently Professor and Chair of Graduate Architecture in the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in the Sam Fox of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.