Dr. Alma Salazar is the Senior Vice President, Center for Education Excellence and Talent Development at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. She oversees the Chamber’s education and workforce development initiatives and also directs the Chamber’s higher education and workforce development policies. In 2012, Salazar was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California Workforce Development Board. Since 2000, Salazar has worked to build business/ education partnerships to improve the academic achievement and life-long learning for California’s students. Salazar has demonstrated success at convening diverse stakeholder groups to promote systems-change and strengthen the region’s workforce development systems by expanding/enhancing relationships that build career pathways to high demand, high growth industries and sustainable careers. Serving as an intermediary, Salazar looks to create and support effective collaboration among education, business, civic and workforce development leaders to influence policies and practices that attempt to close the skills gap and improve the economic mobility of the region’s neediest populations. Salazar graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication, a master’s degree in public policy and administration and doctoral degree in Educational Leadership. Salazar was awarded the prestigious American Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund of the United States in 2012.
