Maria Mercedes Salmon

Maria Mercedes Salmon joined the University of Notre Dame in January 2023 as Director of Notre Dame Mexico, where she leads the University's academic presence and partnerships across Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and beyond. Drawing on more than 20 years in international education — spanning strategic planning, program development, team leadership, and relationship-building across the U.S. and Latin America — she works to strengthen academic and research ties between Notre Dame and institutions that share its values, with a focus on making international education sustainable, accessible, and mutually beneficial for the communities involved.

Since taking on this role, Maria Mercedes has helped launch and grow research collaboration and grant programs connecting Notre Dame faculty with university partners across Mexico, deepened academic partnerships with leading Mexican institutions and state governments — including Querétaro and Yucatán — and expanded Notre Dame's study abroad and student engagement programming in Mexico City. Her work has also helped grow undergraduate and graduate student interest in Notre Dame through close collaboration with Admissions and the Graduate School, while fostering closer engagement between Notre Dame faculty and Mexican institutions around conferences, teaching, and emerging research collaborations. She continues a long-standing commitment to the Fulbright program, building on Notre Dame's multi-decade partnership with COMEXUS, as well as to the broader U.S.–Mexico EducationUSA pipeline.

In her previous role as the Regional Educational Advising Coordinator (REAC) for Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, she and her team of 55 EducationUSA advisers, 19 US embassies and consulates, and 50+ host institutions throughout 25 countries, established a consistent environment for higher education internationalization between the United States and an extremely socio-economically diverse sub-region of the Americas.

Prior to assuming REAC responsibilities, Maria Mercedes was the EducationUSA Country Coordinator and Fulbright Foreign Student program officer at the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador for 10 years, and its acting executive director for 18 months between 2007 and 2009.

She holds a Licenciatura en Gestión Empresarial Internacionals from Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil and a master of arts in international affairs from Ohio University, where she attended as a Fulbright grantee.