Director
Dr. Salvo is an associate professor of Health Behavior and Health Education in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the College of Education.
Dr. Salvo is a physical activity and public health scientist. Through her work, she seeks to understand the role of context on physical activity and health disparities, with a special emphasis on Latin American populations, both in the US and abroad. Her research is motivated by the pursuit of health equity and social justice. Her long-term goal is to produce contextually relevant evidence for reducing spatial health disparities in access to environments that enable physically active, healthy, and sustainable lifestyles for all. As is well-known in public health, the residential zip code where people live has a stronger influence on their health and economic outcomes than their genetics. Given the scarcity of high-quality research examining the effect of space and place (i.e., social, built, and policy environments) on physical activity, health behavior, and quality of life outcomes in low- and middle-income countries and among ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S., Dr. Salvo's work focuses on filling this critical gap.
In parallel to her research on space, place, and physical activity, a critical priority of Dr. Salvo is to build capacity for physical activity and public health research in settings or among populations for which contextually relevant evidence to guide policy action is lacking the most. Dr. Salvo has led several training programs to install and enhance research capacity in physical activity and public health in Latin America. In 2021, she organized the first Latin American Congress on Physical Activity and Health Research.
Prior to joining UT Austin, Dr. Salvo held academic appointments at Washington University in St. Louis, UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, and Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. from Emory University and her Bachelor in Science from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City, Mexico).