Magda D. Salazar-Wallace Florida International University, USA, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, USA

Magda D. Salazar is currently the Special Education Chairperson and Teacher at an elementary school in the fourth-largest school district of the nation. Her past experiences include special education teacher; inclusion teacher; curriculum support specialist, Division of Special Education, District Office; professional development support specialist; and adjunct professor at Florida International University and Barry University. She is a former Rookie Teacher of the Year and is in her tenth year in the field of education.

Salazar is vice-president of Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Miami Chapter 121; newsletter editor, Florida Council for Exceptional Children (FCEC); and local program chair for the 2007 State FCEC conference. Her publications include ERIC Document #491545 Review of Single Subject Research Design: Applications to Special Education and Psychology, as well as ERIC Document #491410, entitled, What Do the Experts Say about Urban Special Education Issues? She is also the author of Professional Development: Assisting Urban Schools in Making Annual Yearly Progress (September 2007 - the Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research), A Qualitative Study of New/Early Career Special Education Teacher Retention in a Multicultural Urban Setting (Spring 2008 – Florida Educational Leadership Journal), and Urban Co-Teaching Practices: A Mixed Methodological Examination (Spring 2008 – The National Journal of Urban Education and Practice). She has contributed articles to Dade Dispatch (the quarterly newsletter for Dade Reading Council); ESE Connection (ne wslett er for The Florida Council for Exceptional Children), and authored a column entitled Multicultural Corner. In addition, she was co-editor of the GATE Gazette (a monthly newsletter for beginning teachers and their mentors).

Salazar’s graduate achievements include a master’s degree in reading. She is a doctoral candidate at Florida International University, Miami’s first Research I Public University. She is pursuing her doctorate. in urban/special education in the Urban S.E.A.L.S project at Florida International University. Her areas of interests are new/early career teachers, special education, legislation and compliance in special education, learning disabilities, overrepresentation of minorities in special education, literacy, and research.