Speaker's Profile

Dr. Colón-Rivera is a distinguished, adolescent, adult, and addiction psychiatrist of the Pennsylvania medical community. He has a broad experience in community-based programs, with an emphasis on those that help to increase access to assisted medical treatments for patients with substance use disorder.

He is the Medical Director of the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, Inc Behavioral Health Program (APM), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of Hispanic communities through direct behavior and substance use disorder services in the Philadelphia region. APM has functions related to education, health, human services, and community, foster homes, & economic development

Dr. Colon Rivera is also an attending telemedicine physician and a participant in a grant funded by the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) initiative at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and UPMC. He is part of a team working on an emerging community program to increase rural access to medication-assisted treatments (MATs) for patients with substance use disorders.

He is a co-founder, volunteer, and member of CrearConSalud a non-profit in PR since late August 2017, but the group has worked on a series of trips to PR since 2015, assessing and re-assessing different community and mental health (MH) needs and doing educational activities in the island and other Hispanic communities.  

Dr. Colon-Rivera serves as a clinical advisor for the Advisory on Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee for the State of Pennsylvania under the Governor Wolf administration and the senior advisor for the Opioid State Targeted Response Technical Assistance for Puerto Rico.

He is currently a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh Medical and the Einstein Medical Center.

He has participated in over 50 national and international presentations/workshops/ writings on topics related to substance use and related disorders, social determinants, and mental health in adolescents.