Carmen R. Valdez, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She has a joint appointment as associate professor and chief of community engagement and health equity in the Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School. She directs the Community-Driven Initiatives Program, which supports local residents to tackle issues affecting health in their community.
She has co-led community and academic coalitions that leverages social capital, community experience, and university research and resources to address educational and health equity for minoritized and marginalized populations. Valdez is also interested in mentoring health equity scholars and junior faculty of color in authentic leadership and in community-based participatory research. She and her collaborators lead community engagement studios and workshops on community engagement.
Valdez has a special interest in understanding family stability and stress. She is associate editor of the journal Family Process. In her family research, she examines the role of social policy, neighborhood, and family factors on immigrant personal and family health, as well as developing community-based, family-focused interventions for Latino immigrant families. She has led a dissemination and implementation project to scale up her family-focused intervention for Latina/o families affected by maternal depression, Fortalezas Familiares (Family Strengths). She has also led a case study of immigration policy and its role in health, focusing on following longitudinally four families in Arizona.
Professional Interests
Community-based participatory research, family interventions, immigrant health, mental health.