Dennis Rivera

Dennis Rivera is President of RC Consulting Group, LLC. He is the former Chair of SEIU Healthcare, the healthcare division of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Launched in June of 2007, SEIU Healthcare unites over 1.1 million nurses and healthcare workers in an effort to provide the highest quality health care to every patient, heal our nation’s broken healthcare system, and bring hope of better jobs and better lives to millions of caregivers throughout the U.S. Modern Healthcare, the industry’s foremost publication, ranked Dennis Rivera sixth on its list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.”

As President of 1199SEIU from 1989 to 2007, Rivera oversaw dramatic growth in union membership within the healthcare sector. His knowledge of hospital systems and his desire to improve the quality of patient care helped transform the state of labor-management relationships in New York. With Rivera’s guidance, healthcare workers emerged on the national stage as a united, passionate voice for working families on a host of social issues, including healthcare access and affordability, economic justice, immigration rights, and the Iraq war.

Born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, in 1950, Rivera attended the University of Puerto Rico, and moved to New York in 1977 to work as a union representative.