Decades of leadership experience in healthcare technology have led Keith Rivera to Nebraska.
The New Mexico native will join Nebraska Medicine on Monday, June 22, as its new vice president, chief information officer.
“Nebraska Medicine is an outstanding health system with a strong reputation for excellence,” Rivera said. “I’m looking forward to joining the collaborative culture and working alongside a team committed to advancing innovation and transforming healthcare.”
“We are very excited to have Keith join Nebraska Medicine,” said Michael Hasselberg, PhD, chief transformation and digital officer. “His IT leadership experience within healthcare will help us continue our momentum when it comes to our development of AI tools, application rationalization work and driving the next generation of digital innovation across our organization.”
With Rivera’s hiring, Nicole Becker, who has served as interim vice president for IT since April 2025, will resume her duties as executive director of IT Business Operations.
“I want to give our sincere gratitude to Nicole and thank her for her exceptional leadership and dedication to ensuring that our IT department continued to move forward with confidence,” Dr. Hasselberg said.
Rivera brings extensive experience leading large-scale technology and digital transformation initiatives in healthcare. He spent most of his career at Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico, serving in several IT leadership roles ranging from director to vice president of clinical and business applications before most recently serving as chief information officer.
“I’m very passionate about healthcare — our whole family is,” he says.
Rivera’s wife, Shelley, is a physical therapist. Their oldest daughter, Megan, is completing her residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Washington, while their twin daughters, Hannah and Madeline, work in nursing and healthcare marketing, respectively.
That personal connection to healthcare continues to shape Rivera’s leadership philosophy and passion for helping clinicians and caregivers spend more time focused on patients.
“The ultimate goal is helping clinicians and caregivers deliver extraordinary care,” he said. “We have an incredible opportunity to transform care delivery, with AI serving as a powerful enabler of more personalized, innovative and connected care. While AI will reshape many industries, healthcare will always remain deeply human and relationship-driven.”
Rivera’s leadership priorities will focus on three key areas:
- Modernizing technology infrastructure.
- Optimizing enterprise platforms.
- Strengthening IT service delivery capabilities to improve both the user and patient experience.
Those efforts include continued focus on cloud migration, cybersecurity, application modernization and innovative operating models that help teams work more effectively and efficiently.
In his first few months with Nebraska Medicine, Rivera will focus on listening, learning and building relationships across the organization. He plans to spend time meeting with leaders and teams across Nebraska Medicine to better understand operational needs and priorities.
Over time, those conversations will help shape and refine strategic IT roadmaps designed to support long-term transformation goals and continue elevating the role of technology across the organization.
Rivera’s leadership style is grounded by guiding principles around people, trust, service and connection. He often reflects on a quote from Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“I want our teams to feel empowered and connected to the mission,” Rivera said. “Leadership is certainly about outcomes, performance and delivering value, but it’s also about human connection — bringing people together and helping them do their best work.”