Maria Elena’s Messages

Meet Maria Elena

Maria Elena Salazar is from Española, New Mexico. Dr. Salazar is honored to have worked with students, early childhood through doctoral level, during her 24 years as a professional educator. Her degrees are in Print Journalism and Spanish (BA Double Major, UNM), Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies, Language Arts Emphasis (MA, UNM), and Curriculum and Instruction, Early Childhood Education, Literacy and Children’s Literature Emphases (PhD, NMSU). She received her first teaching license at Northern New Mexico College. She now holds three Level III State of New Mexico Instructional Leader teaching licenses: Birth through Third Grade, PreKingarten through Twelfth Grade and Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. Maria Elena taught Bilingual Education, Title 1, primary grades, and Special Education Preschool with the Española Public Schools (EPS). She also served as EPS’s Early Childhood Specialist, supervising the early childhood professionals, reports and activities therein.  Dr. Salazar supervised and taught pre and in-service teachers while a doctoral student at NMSU and during the past seven years at the University of New Mexico. Her areas of teaching, presenting and professional development are Multicultural Education (MCE), Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), Teacher Preparation and Literacy. Maria Elena loves open ended materials, a pedagogy of ecology, and culturally responsive practices. She has three young adult children, five cats and thousands of children’s books.