Dr. Karina G. Salazar
Dr. Karina G. Salazar
Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies & Practice
Dr. Karina G. Salazar is an Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice. Her research focuses on how the enrollment management practices of public universities shape college access for underserved student populations and has led to important findings related to how race and class are implicated in university recruitment practices. A 2023 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Salazar has had her work featured in various top-tier journals, as well as in high profile public venues such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. She was also named one of Tucson’s 40 Under 40 (2024) and has recently been named as one of just seven UA Provost Fellows for Academic Success Goals (2026).
A leading expert in quantitative data analysis, Dr. Salazar is a local Tucsonan who graduated from the Sunnyside Unified School District and is a three-time graduate from the University of Arizona. Dr. Salazar maintains a steadfast commitment to growing future generations of critically oriented scholars and has always been focused on developing research that moves policy and practice. For example, her involvement in the Sunnyside CATS program has led to dramatic increases in applications, enrollment, and recruitment of high school students from the Sunnyside Unified School District, something her research had previously indicated was not happening at the rates it should have been given the district’s proximity to UA.
"The people and places of my community are what I look to, and who continue to provide inspiration and ground all I do professionally. "
Who do you draw inspiration from and why?
I draw inspiration from my home community. I grew up and still live in South Tucson, and this is the place that grounds me. This community is so often overlooked and casted as “uneducated,” yet it is so rich in cultural and familial resources. The people and places of my community are what I look to, and who continue to provide inspiration and ground all I do professionally.
What are one or two accomplishments of which you are most proud?
The recent accomplishment I am most proud of is co-authoring an OpEd that was published in The New York Times. In the piece, my co-author and I write about how college recruitment practices skew toward richer and whiter prospective students. Our analysis showed that, as we wrote in the OpEd, “Public high schools in more affluent neighborhoods receive more visits than those in less affluent areas.” This of course poses additional barriers for college-going for students from less affluent and less white neighborhoods and is also a damaging outgrowth from the state and federal trends of stripping back funding for higher education.
“This of course poses additional barriers for college-going for students from less affluent and less white neighborhoods and is also a damaging outgrowth from the state and federal trends of stripping back funding for higher education.”
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Picking up on the answer to the first question, I would say my advice would be to stay grounded in who you are and where you come from.
What is something you are working on currently that you’re excited about?
I am excited about a new avenue of research agenda that is at the nexus of education, critical data studies and technology, and geography scholarship. I talk about it in more length during the recorded lecture series video, but I am really excited about how this could have very real positive effects for recruitment practices.
