Melissa T. Salazar is director of the Archives and Historical Services Division (AHSD) of the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives (SRCA). She manages the State Archives, which is the central repository for State government's permanent and historical records, as well as numerous private papers and manuscript collections. The State Archives houses records from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, including documents dating from New Mexico's Spanish, 1621-1821, Mexican, 1821-1846, and Territorial, 1846-1912, periods of history.

Ms. Salazar has 17 years of experience in archives, records, and information management. In 1996, she began as a records management analyst conducting records surveys and writing records retention and disposition schedules for the SRCA. She accepted the senior archivist position in 1998 and was promoted to Archives bureau chief in 2003. She was acting division director from July 2007 to March 2008 when she accepted the director's position.

Ms. Salazar holds a BA in Journalism with a minor in Spanish from the University of New Mexico (UNM). She continued her education at UNM, earning an MA in American Studies with an emphasis in Southwest Hispanic Regional Studies. She attended the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, and College Park, MD in 1999. She received her archival certification from the Academy of Certified Archivists in October 2001. She is the recipient of the 1998 Association of Records Managers and Administrators Rio Grande Chapter Annual Conference Scholarship; the 1999 Colonial Dames of America Scholarship to the Modern Archives Institute; and the 2000 A. Otis Hebert Jr. Scholarship.