Dr. Colon-Rivera grew up between San Juan and Vieques, PR. His mother, a special education teacher often took him to work with her, where he was exposed to families dealing with mental illness. This early exposure instilled in him a deep understanding of social factors, such as poverty, lack of education, poor accessibility to health care, as well as reduced social and family support contributing to mental illness.

Following medical school in PR and psychiatric residency training at Boston University, he completed his addiction psychiatry fellowship at Yale Medical Center where he focused on working with Children and Adolescents with substance use disorders.