She was educated at a Sacred Heart Academy in Overbrook, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Manhattanville College in 1952 and a Master of Surgery degree in mathematics from the University of Detroit in 1968.
Sister Salisbury entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart in 1952 and professed her final vows in 1960. She was the longtime headmistress of New York"s oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart (CSH). In her two decades as headmistress, starting in 1980, she overhauled the school"s curriculum, upgraded its facilities and nearly doubled its enrollment.
In 1990, the school received a for Academic Excellence from the United States Department of She previously taught at Sacred Heart schools in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Salisbury was also Vice Chairwoman of the Board of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) and headed its accreditation commission. After retiring in 2000, she was a mentor to her congregation"s novices in Chicago.
She sat on the boards of Sacred Heart schools in Albany, Miami, and Greenwich. She died in Atherton, California, aged 74, from respiratory failure after a kidney infection.
She had no immediate survivors.
