Natalia Rivera's academic path showcases her dedication and focus on research. She earned her undergraduate degree in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from Syracuse University in 1999, followed by an M.Sc. in the same field from Rutgers University in 2004. After gaining research experience, she transitioned to a multidisciplinary field, returning to graduate school to obtain an M.Sc. in Human Genetics with a focus on Genetic Epidemiology from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, completed in 2011. Her studies culminated with a Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from the University of Milan, Italy, in 2012.

In 2013, she joined Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, for a postdoctoral position in a joint collaboration on the genetics of sarcoidosis and autoimmune diseases. During her postdoctoral training, Natalia focused on the genetics and epigenetics of immune-mediated diseases, specifically sarcoidosis and rheumatoid arthritis, under the mentorship of Professor Johan Grunewald and Leonic Padyukov.

In 2016, NR established the Multi-Ethnic Sarcoidosis Genomic (MESARGEN) consortium, a collaborative effort spanning more than 30 research groups and 15 European countries, to conduct large-scale genome-wide association studies and genomics in well-phenotyped sarcoidosis cohorts enriched with clinical data. Natalia developed her research line in the genomics of sarcoidosis and expanded it to interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), including the genetics of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs), and rheumatoid arthritis-associated ILD (RA-ILD). In 2023, Natalia chaired the WASOG 2023 international conference. She is also one of the leading Principal Investigators of Work Package 4 of the ERS-funded SARCOIDOMICS.

In 2026, she joined the lab led by Michelle Sharp as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. As part of Michelle Sharp’s team, Natalia will help develop the Precision Medicine Collaborative Sarcoidosis, in which the MESARGEN consortium is to be expanded across the American population and US biobanks.