A Texas Visionary with Entrepreneurism

Profile: MARTHA SALAZAR-ZAMORA

Growing up with severe hearing loss, Martha Salazar-Zamora quickly learned the power of a strong advocate through her mother’s example.

“She advocated for my rights as a student because she recognized that I tested as a gifted and talented child but was in special education for a severe hearing loss,” recalls Salazar-Zamora, superintendent of Tomball Independent School District in Texas. “No matter what, I would be successful, but I may have to work harder because of that.”

It wasn’t until she was 17 that Salazar-Zamora’s conductive hearing loss was repaired through an ossicular chain implant. She says her mother always reminded her “never to let my disability be an inability.”

Now, Salazar-Zamora channels that energy as she pushes hard to provide opportunities for students in rapid-growth Tomball, where her work won public recognition as a 2024 finalist for National Superintendent of the Year. (Tomball went from a 9,000-student district at the beginning of her tenure in 2017 to 23,000 now.)

“I think she’s a visionary,” says Blaire Koehl, president of the parent-teacher organization at her children’s Tomball elementary school. “She’s always thinking of new ideas, innovative ideas. Even the two-way dual language program was something new to the district — so she’s always looking for ways to benefit the students and put Tomball on the map.”

John E. McStravick, school board president and a trustee for 24 years, points to the superintendent’s “drive for continuous improvement” as someone “always looking to … take it to the next level.”

Salazar-Zamora secured for her district a 70-acre space with 10 buildings by purchasing a former oil and gas company in bankruptcy. The expansive site enabled her to establish the Tomball Innovation Center, which offers career and college growth opportunities and houses the district’s early college program. Offerings include cyber security and drone development courses, 9-1-1 simulations and pilot mechanic training. Of the early college students, 100 percent have graduated with associates’ degrees.

Salazar-Zamora always is on the lookout for such opportunities. The district created a 12,000-seat stadium in a football-mad state it rents to the community for various purposes, in­clud­ing a television production studio.

“I call myself an enterprise superintendent because it’s not often you will find superintendents are generating funds for their district,” she says.

It’s an important part of her work harkening back to her time as a student. Her philosophy? “Regardless of where you live or your circumstances … the only thing we will see as limitless are your opportunities,” she says.

Salazar-Zamora’s propensity for generating creative ideas is well recognized among colleagues. Amy Schindewolf, Tomball’s chief of staff, quips, “Her brain is always moving and always thinking.”

She adds: “A lot of ideas have come together on a napkin. We often say, ‘Oh no, she’s getting her napkin out.’ When we opened our early college high school, we were at a … conference. … She wanted to have an early college high school, and she literally passed that to me on a napkin.”

An educator for 37 years, Salazar-Zamora says being recognized as an NSOY finalist this year was “such an honor” — overwhelming enough she almost missed a flight to Italy to take the call from AASA informing her of the final four status. She doesn’t expect to stop any time soon.

Above her office door sits a sign that says “Faith will see us through.” She says, “Even on days that are difficult, I read that and think, ‘Tomorrow, I don’t have to do a job, I get to do a job that I love very much.’”

Jacqueline Hyman is assistant editor for School Administrator magazine.