Maria Elena Salinas, an award-winning journalist and author, joined CBS News as a contributor in 2019, a role in which she reports across multiple CBS News broadcasts and platforms. Salinas is one of the most recognizable and respected journalists in the country, most notably having served as co-anchor of Univision's evening news program for more than 30 years.

In a career that spans nearly four decades, Salinas has interviewed world leaders and covered virtually every major national and international news event of our time. Her work has earned the top awards presented in broadcasting, including multiple Emmys, a Peabody, Gracie Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.

While at CBS News, Salinas has contributed to the network's coverage of the 2020 election including primetime coverage of Super Tuesday and the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Salinas also anchored the poignant CBS News documentary "Pandemia: Latinos In Crisis," an hour-long, sweeping look at the Latinx community, along with other communities of color, who continues to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic while fulfilling essential roles across the country. For "48 Hours," Salinas investigated the death of a college student and the international search for her killer. Salinas also contributed to a special edition of CBS News' investigative series "Eye on America," which examined how families throughout communities across the country and once lived paycheck to paycheck, fell through the cracks and found themselves homeless.

Most recently, Salinas was the host of "The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas," a crime series for Investigation Discovery. She also covered the 2018 presidential election in Mexico for Telemundo.

Salinas contributed to CBS News in 2016, when she reported on the role Hispanics would play in the election for "CBS Sunday Morning." While at Univision, she was co-host of "Noticiero Univision" and co-host of "Aquí y Ahora," a newsmagazine program for Univision.

A versatile and bilingual journalist, Salinas has interviewed every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter. She is at ease interviewing newsmakers such as Manuel Noriega, the former dictator of Panama and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, as she is sitting down with Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan.

Salinas was one of the first female journalists in wartime Baghdad. She participated in the 2004 bilingual debate on Hispanic issues and in 2007 co-hosted the first Democratic and Republican presidential candidate forums in Spanish for Univision.

From 2001-2011, Salinas wrote a weekly syndicated column in both English and Spanish. She is also the author of the 2006 autobiography, "I Am My Father's Daughter, Living a Life Without Secrets."

Salinas is a founding member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and for over two decades has provided dozens of students with a scholarship under her name. She also serves on the board of Hispanic Scholarship Board.

Salinas began her journalism career in 1981 as a reporter, anchor and public affairs host for KMEX-TV, Univision's affiliate in Los Angeles.