Born in Michigan to Filipino parents, Rabbi Mira Rivera grew up in the Philippines under the care of her maternal grandmother. Widely traveled, Rivera has studied in Varanasi and taught meditation and yoga to women all over the world. She fulfilled her dream of dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company, toured in Actors' Equity productions, and earned a BFA in Film from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She later settled in New York City and raised a family, while teaching dance to public school children through the National Dance Institute and growing as an educator in synagogues. She was the first Filipino-American woman to receive ordination, from The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2015, where she earned an MA in Jewish Studies. She is also a Board Certified Chaplain. She served as a Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at Romemu from 2018 to 2022, during which time she brainstormed ideas for what would become Ammud: Jews of Color Torah Academy, where she was a Rabbinic Mentor from 2019 to 2023. Rivera was a recipient of the Jade Netanya Ullmann award from Romemu. She co-chaired the Rabbinical Council of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and still advocates with JFREJ and T’ruah through her involvement with their joint project, Tirdof: New York Jewish Clergy for Justice. She co-founded Harlem Havruta, “a brave space for Jews of Color, allies and co-conspirators” in West Harlem, and belongs to the first cohort of the Jewish Women of Color Resilience Circle. As of November 2022, Rivera was rabbi-in-residence at both the LUNAR Collective, an organization founded by and for Asian American Jews, and at JCC Harlem. In May 2023 she was honored in “NY Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch in 2023.” The song in her heart is the Ladino saying, Boz del puevlo, boz del sielo: The voice of the people, the voice of heaven.