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Education

M.A., Japanese Language and Civilizations, University of Colorado Boulder, 2000
B.A., Japan Studies, Teikyo Loretto Heights University at the University of Colorado Denver, 1996

Regional and Thematic Interests

East Asia
Language, Sociolinguistics, Global Education, Higher Education Management

Profile

Danielle��Rocheleau Salaz��is the Executive Director of the Center for Asian Studies at 91��ý, a position she has held since 2005. She currently serves as Vice President for Planning and Programming for the Council of National Resource Centers (CNRC) and as Chair of the national Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Consortium.

As Executive Director of CAS, Salaz guides the Center’s strategic planning and manages day-to-day operations. She has administered over $10 million in grant and charitable funding in support of the Center’s mission of expanding access to information about Asia both on and off campus. Salaz built and launched the summer Asia Internship Program for CU students in Japan in 2016, expanding into China in 2019. She is currently building partnerships for expansion into Southeast Asia in summer 2027.��

A recognized leader at 91��ý, Salaz serves on college- and campus-wide committees and provides formal and informal mentorship and partnership to faculty and staff members. She was selected for the prestigious University Perspective program for the 2025-26 academic year and awarded Employee of the Year for the College of Arts & Sciences in 2022-23.

In spring 2026, Salaz developed and co-led a pre-conference workshop, “Leading an Asian Studies Center in a Changing World: An Opportunity to Build Connections, Share Best Practices, and Broaden Perspectives” at the Association for Asian Studies Conference in Vancouver; presented “CLAC on Campus: Using Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum to Enhance Student Learning Beyond the Language Classroom,” as an invited speaker at 33^rd Annual ASIANetwork Conference in Naperville, Illinois; and convened and chaired “CLAC as a Bridge to the Future: Spanning Boundaries and Building Networks,” a roundtable session at the Future(s) of Area and International Studies: Challenges and Opportunities Conference at the University of Pittsburgh.

Danielle launched CAS’s CLAC pilot program in 2017–2018 and has since been leading efforts to expand CLAC as a boundary-spanning model for global learning and collaboration. She authored a chapter in the edited volume, Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum in Higher Education: Harnessing the Transformative Potentials of CLAC Across Disciplines,��released by Routledge in 2022.

Salaz studied in Japan and Russia as an exchange student and has visited China, Hong Kong, and South Korea for academic purposes. In 1998-99,��she completed an intensive one-year program at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. Upon her return to the U.S., she worked at the Consulate General of Japan in Denver for six years. In 2025, Salaz was selected as a scholarship recipient and participant in the ASEAN Faculty Development in International Business program administered by the University of Colorado Denver’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), which allowed her to engage in field visits and briefings by business and government leaders in Singapore and the Philippines.

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