Ersula Rivers

Ersula Rivers is a Research Information Technology Documentation Specialist who currently leads the Social, Statistical, and Environmental Sciences (SSES) Project Management Center of Excellence Initiative. She manages the build and implementation phase of the Project Management Center of Excellence as part of the SSES Quality Office. Her efforts include moving the evaluation plan forward to develop support services and resources for knowledge sharing and establishing standards frameworks, governance models, change and communication strategies, and continuous stakeholder engagement. She is also a part of the Direct Contracting Model project, which allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to leverage lessons learned from the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Next Generation ACO Model, and other Medicare ACO initiatives.

Since joining RTI in 2017, Ms. Rivers played a critical role in The Oncology Care Model project, a new CMS model for cancer care that aims to improve care coordination, appropriateness of care, and access for chemotherapy beneficiaries. In addition, she worked on the Comprehensive Assessment of HRSA’s Data project for the Human Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Rivers’ expertise includes knowledge of cloud-based solutions and development systems for project management, quality management, risk management, and records management. She is also pursuing her Project Management Professional certificate, currently is a Certified Professional Technical Communicator, and is licensed to practice law in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Previously, Ms. Rivers assisted RTI analysts and programmers in developing project documentation deliverables from publication to SharePoint, edited and revised electronic content following Section 508 compliance standards, organized and maintained a master documentation plan. She also collaborated with key personnel to establish templates and documentation standards, develop tools, techniques, train and support project staff, and customize enterprise cloud-based technologies.