Dr. Saladin is the Director of Student Accessibility Services at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He has served as the Associate Vice President for Faculty with the Division of Health Affairs, UTRGV. He has thirteen years in higher education. He moved to The Valley to start a Deaf Rehabilitation concentration. He has held various leadership positions such as interim chair of the Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, Dietetics and Nursing programs. He is a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Services and Counseling and has served on numerous dissertation and thesis committees.
He earned his PhD at The University of Texas at Austin, College of Education Department of Special Education, in the Rehabilitation Counselor Education Program. He previously worked with the State of Texas state/federal VR program for eleven years and, prior to that, in the Texas public secondary education school system. Dr. Saladin is both a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and Certified Public Manager (CPM). His scholarly activities include twenty-five peer reviewed journal articles, the recipient of “McCay Vernon Outstanding JADARA Article, in 2011 and again in 2017; ten book chapters, and seventy state, national and international presentations. Dr. Saladin has assisted in securing over $11M in external funding.
Dr. Saladin has served as the President of the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification. In addition, his service includes nineteen years of continuous gubernatorial appointments. These include the Rehabilitation Council of Texas, The Texas Governors Committee on Persons with Disabilities and the Governing Board for the Texas School for the Deaf. He has received university level awards for teaching, research and service. He has also received recognition from the community as Distinguished Community Leader for his work with the Deaf Community and the Texas Rehabilitation Associations Promethean Award. His current teaching load includes leadership, job development/placement, and psychosocial aspects of disability. His research interest includes success factors in job placement for people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, collegiality, and health disparities.