Mary Salcedo

Dr. Salcedo currently works as a project manager in the School of Biological and Heath Systems Engineering (SBHSE) at Arizona State University. She manages an award from the Flinn Foundation to facilitate new partnerships with local healthcare industries. Since her arrival and move to ASU in March 2024, she worked to build a stronger partnership with biomedical engineering at ASU and Mayo Clinic, hiring the team to start a new biodesign Masters of Science, IMPACT (Innovations in Medical and Patient Care Technologies), and working to launch within a year. In early 2025, Salcedo and her team launched IMPACT as Stanford Biodesign’s first U.S. Program Development Associate, to partner and support the budding curriculum. IMPACT Biodesign launched in Fall 2025 with 7 students under the leadership of Program Chair, Dr. Debby Keller. The team is actively recruiting its Fall 2026 cohort with applications due March 30th, 2026. 

Research history:

In 2012, Dr. Mary Salcedo dual-majored in Applied Computation Mathematics and Molecular Biology at the University of Washington (Seattle) and worked in Dr. Tom Daniel’s neuromuscular-flight lab. Before graduate school, Dr. Salcedo worked as a research technician in Dr. Stacey Combes’ lab at the Concord Field Station studying kinematics and predatory flight behavior of dragonflies catching prey. In 2019, she earned their Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, focusing on fluid dynamics of hemolymph in insect wings supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. From July 2019-June 2022 she worked as an NSF Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr. Jake Socha (Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics Dept) at Virginia Tech measuring and quantifying circulation and breathing in insects. Before accepting a position at Arizona State University as a Project Manager in the School of Biological Health Systems Engineering, Dr. Salcedo worked (July 2022 - March 2024) as a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Postdoctoral Fellow Cornell with Dr. Sunny Jung in Biological and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Anurag Agrawal in Entomology and EEB. Her research focused on toxicology in insects, specifically within their wings.

Service history: 

Dr. Salcedo is committed to diversity and equity in all of her science and service teams. She currently serves on the national SACNAS Membership Committee, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in STEM, a national organization that promotes culture, community, and science. She has served on the Entomology Society of America’s Hispanic Committee. Dr. Salcedo created project management workshops (June and Oct 2022) for academics (through the professional Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology) and online content, which teach modern project management strategies to SICB members with trained Lean-Agile industry-certified coaches. In 2021 in acknowledgement of her efforts with SICB for the last decade, she received the inaugural SICB award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.

In SBHSE, she serves as the interim Lead for the Outreach and Recruitment Committee (Fall 2025-current), organizing and recruiting for SBHSE. She annually attends the Biomedical Engineering Society Conference to bring awareness to SBHSE’s growing programs. Recently, she re-designed and remodeled a “storage area” for defunct lab equipment, as a SBHSE Grad Student Common Area where grad students can study, hold events, and create community. 

Personal: 

She has lived all over the United States and is thrilled to call Arizona home. In her spare time she visits her friends back in Ithaca, NY, crafts, hikes, and plays roller derby.