Perla Salazar-Rangel

As the Project Coordinator, Perla Salazar-Rangel is responsible for facilitating student engagement through supporting and creating cross-site events for Kessler Scholars to connect with one another alongside being the team lead on communications and marketing efforts to enhance the presence of the Kessler Scholars Program.

Perla has an M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University where she studied higher education administration with a concentration in student affairs. Her academic interests focus on college admissions, access, and success, especially how each impacts marginalized students, with a special focus and care for first-generation students, socioemotional wellbeing and their matriculation into the postsecondary atmosphere. She received her bachelor’s degree in Journalism with minors in Spanish and Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies from Elon University.

Prior to working with the Kessler Scholars Collaborative, Perla was the recipient of a scholarship housed under the Odyssey Scholars Program, a highly competitive need and merit-based program, designed to provide holistic support to underrepresented students. She credits her participation in this program as the reason her higher education journey commenced and has continued.