Dr. Salazar grew up in the beautiful southern California beach communities of Santa Monica and Venice. The Venice Boardwalk (complete with roller skating-guitar-playing musicians, chainsaw jugglers, and mimes), featured in TV shows such as NCIS LA, was her “backyard” for many years. She raised her family and completed her education in New Mexico, earning a master’s and doctorate in counseling with emphasis in Gender and Ethnic Research from University of New Mexico (UNM). From 1996 to 1999 she was an instructor in the Women Studies program at UNM, one of the oldest such programs in the country. Dr. Salazar had extensive experience as a Licensed Professional Counselor in New Mexico, working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, and home-bound elderly clients. She left New Mexico for Texas in 1999 when she joined the faculty at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Dr. Salazar’s teaching, scholarship and service reflect her commitment to group work, diversity, and social justice. She regularly teaches graduate courses in multicultural counseling; group dynamics; theories of counseling; race, class, and gender issues; and research applications. In recent years she developed a cognate in diversity for the counseling doctoral program.
Dr. Salazar’s national service includes offices in two divisions of the American Counseling Association (ACA). She served for six years as co-chair of the Association for Specialists in Group Work Human Rights and Diversity committee and a three-year term on the ASGW executive board as Treasurer (2009-2012). A founding member of Counselors for Social Justice, she served on the executive board of CSJ in various capacities from 2001-2005. She is a member of the ACA editorial advisory board (2006-2014) and the editorial board of the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology (2007-2014). She also served on the editorial boards of the Journal for Specialists in Group Work (2007-2010) and the Journal for Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development (2001-2005).
In 2010 Dr. Salazar was guest co-editor (with Dr. Anneliese Singh, The University of Georgia) of two consecutive special issues of the Journal for Specialists in Group Work on social justice group work. She is editor of Group Work Experts Share Their Favorite Multicultural Activities: A Guide to Diversity-Competent Choosing, Planning, Conducting, and Processing and co-editor of another book: Social Justice in Group Work: Practical Interventions for Change. She has also published numerous articles and book chapters on multiculturalism, group work, and social justice issues. At the 2011 American Counseling Association Annual Conference in New Orleans she received the Group Work Practice Award from the Association for Specialists in Group Work in recognition of her scholarly contributions to group work practice.
At Texas A&M Commerce Dr. Salazar has served on the President’s Strategic Planning Committee (2000-2006), the President’s SACS Strategic Focus Committee (2001-2003), and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (2005-2007). She was a member of the university Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) from 2003-2005; she joined the IRB again in Fall 2010 and began serving as IRB chair in Spring 2011.
On the home front, Dr. Salazar and her husband Dr. George Leddick enjoy their 34-acre home in Campbell, “Yawning Dog Ranch,” where they wrangle herds of dogs (2), cats (4), and English Shire horses (2).