Soto was born in a sod house in Belén del Refugio [es], part of the municipality of Teocaltiche in Jalisco, Mexico.
[6] Soto worked at the University of Southern Colorado from 1989 to 1992 as director of the Mathematics Learning Center.
[7] At the University of Northern Colorado, Soto founded and directed a summer program for high school girls, Las Chicas de Matemáticas: UNC Math Camp for Young Women, from 2008 to 2014,[2][3][8] and returned to rural Nebraska to participate in a teacher education program there, Math in the Middle.
[3] She is a fellow of Project NExT, and has been governor of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
[12] In 2001, Chadron State College gave Soto their Distinguished Young Alumni Award.