Josué E. Rivera
United States Department of Agriculture
State Director, Rural Development
Josué E. Rivera, serves as the State Executive Director of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) in Puerto Rico, since April 2018.
He started his career while he was in college when he interned and worked full time in one of the Puerto Rico’s top 10 accounting firms, Falcón Sánchez & Associates, as well as in the globally renowned PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. (PwC), Assurance Practices.
His inspiration to enter public service and policy-making began when, as participant of the Baltasar Corrada del Rio Summer Internship of the Puerto Rico Department of State, he had the opportunity to rotate in the department’s offices of the Deputy Secretary of Corporate Services, Secretary of State and the Governor’s Office.
In 2010, he was awarded a full scholarship to represent Puerto Rico in the World Affairs Council of America annual conference “US Foreign Policy: Into the Next Decade” in Washington, D.C. His commitment to serve his community has earned him awards by multiple non-profit organizations like the congressionally-chartered U.S. Civil Air Patrol and the National Exchange Club of San Juan.
He was Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Association of Latino Professionals for America, Puerto Rico Chapter. Josué joined the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) office in Washington DC in January 2017 as a Policy Advisor. He was named President of the Ethics Committee.
Mr. Rivera earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting from the University of Puerto Rico. In December 2017, he was recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Association of University of Puerto Rico Alumni and Friends Abroad (UPRAA), for his hard work after the Hurricane María disaster.
He is happily married with Stephanie González, his college sweetheart, since summer 2016, and they live in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.