Born in 1966, Saliba grew up on a banana farm in Damour,[4] where she was inspired by her father's connection to nature.

When the Lebanese Civil War forced her family to move to the city, Saliba became interested in ways to mitigate air pollution.

[11] She helped to establish the Ibsar Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures in 2002, which looked to protect Lebanon's biodiversity.

[11] In her early career she struggled to get chemicals, as the majority of Western companies would not ship to Lebanon for fear that they would be used to make weapons.

She became concerned about the open-air burning of Lebanese waste; and showed that the incineration could increase the amount of carcinogens in the air by 2,300%.

[18][19] She showed a variety of toxins are emitted during the burning of waste, and measured their concentration at the top of a four-story apartment building in Beirut.

She identified particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as lead, cadmium, titanium and arsenic from metal burning.

[22] In 2018 Saliba's American University of Beirut Nature Conservation Center was selected as one of the top influencing organisations in the regeneration movement by Lush.