Stephanie Rivera-Kumar, NPL ’19

Stephanie Rivera-Kumar is a third-year city and regional planning doctoral student and Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Rivera-Kumar’s research explores Latinx immigrant populations’ economic, cultural, political, and social impacts on U.S. cities, specifically Philadelphia. Her research has received funding from the Penn Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration; the Penn Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies; and the Penn Institute for Urban Research. Rivera-Kumar is a research assistant at the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), was selected as a Perry World House graduate associate in 2021 and 2022, and previously served as a teaching fellow at SP2’s Center for Social Impact Strategy.

Before beginning her doctoral studies, Rivera-Kumar worked as a nonprofit professional and social impact strategist for over ten years. Rivera-Kumar is currently a co-chair of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, the treasurer of the University of Pennsylvania Association of Alumnae, a member of the SP2 Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership (NPL) Program Governance Committee, and a board member of Studio Ludo. From 2021 through 2023, Rivera-Kumar served as one of the co-chairs of the NPL Alumni Association. Rivera-Kumar is also a lecturer for the NPL and Master of Science in Social Policy Programs at SP2.

Rivera-Kumar holds a master of science from SP2’s NPL Program, a master of public administration in international administration and development from the University of Texas at Arlington, a diversity and inclusion certificate from Cornell University, an organizational leadership certificate from the Wharton School and SP2, and a professional fundraising certificate from Boston University. Rivera-Kumar has experience managing over $50 million in grant funding across federal, state, and private sources.

Rivera-Kumar’s dedication to social justice, particularly in supporting low-income and immigrant communities, has earned her numerous accolades, including being a Penn-Birmingham Transatlantic Fellow in 2023, a finalist in the 2022 Greater Philadelphia Social Innovations Awards, an AL DÍA 40 under Forty Honoree in 2021, and recipient of Penn’s Excellence in Social Impact Award in 2019.

“I started my SP2 journey in 2017 with the Executive Program in Social Impact Strategy and continued with the NPL Program in 2018. Thanks to SP2, I now possess a critical knowledge of social impact and nonprofit leadership and an invaluable network of international changemakers and social innovators. My SP2 colleagues have become some of my closest friends, advisors, and motivators, and the education I received has been instrumental in my pursuit of emphasizing Latinx immigrants and their lived experiences in my doctoral research at the Weitzman School of Design.”