Salem received her rabbinic ordination from Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Boston, Mass. During her time there, she has served as the rabbinic intern at Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue and at the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, and she was the Community Organizer at Temple Israel of Boston. She was also a mikveh guide at Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and a member of the Community Hevre Kadisha of Greater Boston. She trained to be a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and has been a student fellow with Rabbis Without Borders; American Jewish World Service’s Global Justice Fellowship for Rabbinical and Graduate Students; and T’ruah’s Rabbinical and Cantorial Summer Fellowship in Human Rights. Before going to rabbinical school, Salem lived and worked in Washington, D.C., as a fundraiser for several nonprofit organizations and volunteered for and served on the board of the DC Rape Crisis Center. A native Texan, Salem received a B.A. in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin.
