Born in Iraqi Kurdistan, Dr. Salih is secular scientist, an expert in biodiversity and plant life, and President of the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation. With a B.Sc. in horticulture from the University of Baghdad, and Ph.D. from the University of Bath, she worked for 13 years for USDA/Agriculture Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland. She has published 15 papers with a speciality in plant tissue culture.
Dr. Salih is the founder of Hataw, an NGO in Kurdistan that helps people who were forced to move to cities to return to their villages to work in the fields. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Nature Iraq and the Sakran-Halgurd National Park, and a member of the committee of the Kurdistan National Herbarium.
She is also the wife of Dr. Batham Ahmed Salih, the former Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Deputy PM for Iraq, and the founder of the American University for Iraq. They live in the Kurdish Region of Iraq.