Assistant Professor
Community Health and Prevention
esv35@drexel.edu
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Degrees

PhD, Health Behavior Health Promotion, University of Arizona
MPH, MPH Health Behavior Health Promotion, University of Arizona
BA, Latin American Studies, University of Arizona

Bio

Dr. Elizabeth “Libby” Salerno Valdez is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health & Prevention. Her research program fosters ethical and mutually beneficial academic-community partnerships using participatory, social justice-oriented approaches to examine the structural factors that influence health inequities among historically marginalized and racialized adolescents, emerging adults, and pregnant and parenting people.

Dr. Valdez’s current research is focused on developing community-led health equity structural interventions that attempt to change the social, physical, economic or political environments that affect the health of young people from historically marginalized backgrounds. Relatedly, she is also interested in testing participatory action research as an intervention to combat the negative effects of structural violence on health. Central to her work is the use of community-led study findings to initiate local and state policy and systems change in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, housing, transportation, childcare, financial security, and other social services.

Dr. Valdez is currently PI of the study “Needs and Barriers to Access of Medical Cannabis by Parenting Women by Race” and co-PI of the Philly Joy Bank Evaluation, a mixed methods study to understand whether and how receipt of guaranteed income during and after pregnancy impacts parental mental health and prematurity (as well as other intermediate outcomes). She recently completed the four-year study “Using Participatory Methods to Assess Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Outcomes Among Diverse Youth in Massachusetts” which examined how structural racism, in combination with other systems of oppression, contributes to inequitable adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

Dr. Valdez received her doctoral degree in Health Behavior Health Promotion from the University of Arizona in 2019 and completed a postdoctoral training fellowship at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Research Interests

• Community-led Health Equity Structural Interventions
• Participatory Action Research
• Adolescent Health
• Maternal and Child Health
• Mental Health
• Sexual and Reproductive Health
• Substance Use
• Latinx Immigrant Health
• U.S.-Mexico Border Health

Publications

Select Publications:

Valdez, E.S., Weil, M.*, Chan, J., Simoun, A., Fisher, T., Dixon, S., Beatriz, E., Gubrium, A. Using youth participatory action research to explore the impacts of structural violence on LGBTQIA+ youth health. (Under review). Culture, Health & Sexuality.

Simoun, A.*, Valdez, E.S., Dixon, S., Chan, J., Fisher, T., Weil, M., Beatriz, E., Gubrium, A. (Under Review). Not My Body, Not My Choice: Historically Marginalized Young People’s Lived Experience of Commodification, Subjugation of Bodies, and Heterosexism. Children and Youth Services Review.

Collins-Lovell, C., Richards, A., Sanchez, A., Smyth, J., Gubrium, A., Valdez, E.S. (Under review). "So, this is actually going to somebody, right?" - Critical reflections on participatory planning, implementation, and evaluation of a peer support group for parents from historically marginalized communities, Qualitative Health Research.

Fisher, T.*, Gubrium, A., Dixon, S., Chan, J., Simoun, A., Weil, M., Egan, J., Beatriz, E., Valdez, E.S. (in press). Using Youth Participatory Action Research to Examine Structural Violence and Youth Mental Health. Journal of Prevention and Health Promotion.

Gorry E.*, Valdez, E.S., Chan, J., Dixon, S., Davidson Carroll, G., Phuntsog, T., Delorme, E., Collins-Lovell, C., Egan, J., Gubrium, A. On caring and a love ethic to address the effects of structural violence on adolescent health. (in press). Children and Youth Services Review.

Valdez, E., Dixon, S., Chan, J., Evora, J., Phuntsog, T., Delorme, E., ... & Gubrium, A. (2024). PAR to explore trust and mistrust of marginalized young parents as social service recipients. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health, 100445

Dixon, S. L., Valdez, E.S., Chan, J., Weil, M., Fisher, T., Simoun, A., ... & Gubrium, A. (2024). Stacked Up Against Us: Using Photovoice and Participatory Methods to Explore Structural Racism’s Impact on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Inequities. Health promotion practice, 15248399241229641.

Valdez, E.S., Chan, J., Dixon, S., Davidson Carrol, G., Dorney, T., Delorme, E., Egan, J., Gubrium, A. (2023). Participatory action research to explore the role of structural violence on marginalized and racialized young parents. Health Education & Behavior, 10901981231197397.

Valdez, E.S., Valdez, L., Gorry, E., Dixon, S., Chan, J., Simoun, A., Fisher, T., Weil, M., Collins-Lovell, C., Egan, J., Gubrium, A. (2023). Mind the Gaps: The Need for Inclusion of Male-Identified Voices in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health. American Journal of Men’s Health. https://doi.org/10.25384/SAGE.c.6703312.v1

Valdez, E. S., Chan, J., Donis, A., Collins-Lovell, C., Dixon, S., Beatriz, E., & Gubrium, A. (2023). Structural Racism and Its Influence On Sexual and Reproductive Health Inequities Among Immigrant Youth. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 25(1), 16–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-022-01385-x

Caruso, I., Valdez, E. S., Lovell, C. C., Chan, J., Beatriz, E., & Gubrium, A. (2022). The Need for Community-Responsive and Flexible Sex Ed for Historically Marginalized Youth. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 1-9

Collins Lovell, C., Valdez, E.S., Chan, J., Beatriz, E., & Gubrium, A. (2022). ‘It’s whether or not you got people’: school-based social support to address adolescent sexual and reproductive health inequities. Sex Education, 1-16.

See Dr. Valdez's complete list of publications on Google Scholar