Deborah Salvo PhD

Dr. Deborah Salvo is an associate professor of Health Behavior and Health Education in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education of the College of Education. Dr. Salvo's work takes place both in the U.S. and internationally. In the US, she has led or collaborated in projects based in Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Illinois and California. Internationally, she has led projects and has close working relationships with researchers and institutions across Latin America, and in particular, has strong ties with the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, the leading public health research institution in Latin America.

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. Before 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 of Science from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City, Mexico).