Assistant Professor
Community Health and Prevention, Drexel FIRST Program
lav53@drexel.edu
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Degrees
PhD, Health Behavior and Health Promotion, University of ArizonaMPH, University of ArizonaBA, University of Arizona
Bio
“Luis “Yaotenehuac” Valdez – Yaqui, Opata – is the son of Maria Virginia Diaz Rodriguez of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and Luis Arturo Valdez Arias of Querobabi, Sonora, Mexico. Dr. Valdez was raised and trained in the US-Mexico borderlands and earned his PhD in Health Behavior & Health Promotion with a minor in Epidemiology at the University of Arizona in 2017.
Dr. Valdez uses community-led mixed-methods approaches to investigate the impact of social and structural factors on health outcomes in underserved populations. His work focuses on building collaborative, ethical research partnerships with communities, with an emphasis on fostering awareness, capacity building, and collective efforts for positive change.
Currently, Dr. Valdez is interested in understanding how individual characteristics and societal factors influence the health behaviors of Latino men. His research covers a range of topics, including alcohol and substance use, chronic stress, dietary choices, and physical activity. He is committed to developing and testing scalable, multilevel interventions that are culturally, regionally, and gender-responsive, taking into account the diversity within Latino communities in the U.S. Dr. Valdez’s work is informed by an intersectional framework that seeks to address the root causes of health disparities and promote equity in health outcomes.”
Dr. Valdez's lab website is ganashealth.org.
Research Interests
- Participatory Action Research
- Health Intervention Development and Implementation
- Men's Health
- Latine Health Disparities
- Gender-Role Strain and Stress
- Chronic Stress
- Substance and Alcohol Use
Publications
Barbieri, M., Mercado, E., Gubrium, A. C., & Valdez, L. A. (2023). Social connectedness and surviving at the margins: Findings from interviews with low-income Latino men in the US Northeast. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.
Valdez, E. S., Valdez, L., Gorry, E., Chan, J., Dixon, S., Fisher, T., ... & 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, 17(3), 15579883231181570.
Valdez, L. A., Jaeger, E. C., Garcia, D. O., & Griffith, D. M. (2023). Breaking Down Machismo: Shifting Definitions and Embodiments of Latino Manhood in Middle-Aged Latino Men. American Journal of Men's Health, 17(5), 15579883231195118.
Mullany A., Barbieri, M., Smith, S., Gubrium, A., Valdez, LA. (2022) “Who is really our enemy?: Internalized racism in the Puerto Rican diaspora and the role of political education within community health intervention.” Social Science & Medicine.
Garcia, DO., Valdez, LA., Aceves, B., Bell, ML., Rabe, BA., Villavicencio, EA., Marrero, DG., Melton, F., Hooker, SP., (2022) mHealth-Supported Gender- and Culturally-Sensitive Weight Loss Intervention for Hispanic Men With Overweight and Obesity: Single-Arm Pilot Study. JMIR Formative Research (in press)
Valdez, LA., Mullany, A., Barbieri, M., Gubrium, A., (2022) Uncovering historical legacies to contextualize health inequities in Latino men: An expansion of the minority stress model” Frontiers In Sociology section Gender, Sex, and Sexualities.
Robinson D., Valdez LA., Buchanan, DA., (2020). "The role of work in gender identity, stress and health in
low-income, middle-aged African-American men." Health Promotion International. [PMID: 33370427].
Valdez LA, Garcia DO, “Hispanic Male Recruitment into Weight Management Research: Evaluating
Content Messaging Strategies, Experimental Findings, and Practical Implications." International Quarterly
of Community Health Education.
Mullany A., Valdez L., Gubrium A., Buchanan D., “Precarious work, health, and African-American men: A
qualitative study on perceptions and experiences.” International Journal of Health Services. [PMID:
33327847].
Valdez L., “A Culturally and Gender Responsive Stress and Chronic Disease Prevention Intervention for
Low/No-Income African American Men: The MOCHA Moving Forward Randomized Control Trial Protocol.” Contemporary Clinical Trials. [PMID: 33301990].
Griffith, D.M., Jaeger, E.C., Valdez, L., Schaefer Solle, N., Garcia, D.O., & Alexander, L. (2020).
Developing a “Tailor Made” precision lifestyle medicine intervention for weight control among middle-aged
Latino men. Ethnicity & Disease, 30 (supplement 1). [PMID: 32269462].
Salerno Valdez, E., Skobic, I., Valdez, L., O Garcia, D., Korchmaros, J., Stevens, S., ... & Carvajal, S.
(2020). Youth participatory action research for youth substance use prevention: a systematic
review. Substance Use & Misuse, 55(2), 314-328. [PMID: 31596160].
Salerno Valdez, E., Valdez, L., Korchmaros, J., Garcia, D. O., Stevens, S., Sabo, S., & Carvajal, S. (2020).
Socioenvironmental risk factors for adolescent marijuana use in a United States-Mexico border
community. American Journal of Health Promotion. [PMID: 32458691].
Bea, J. W., Kinslow, B., Valdez, L., Yazzie, E., Curley, P., Dalgai, S., & Schwartz, A. L. (2020). Perceptions
of cancer causes, prevention, and treatment among Navajo cancer survivors. Journal of Cancer
Education, 35(3), 493-500. [PMID: 30756323].
de Heer, H. D., Bea, J., Kinslow, B., Thuraisingam, R., Valdez, L., Yazzie, E., & Schwartz, A. L. (2019).
Development of a Culturally Relevant Physical Activity Intervention for Navajo Cancer
Survivors. Collaborations: American Journal of Community-based Research and Practice, 2(1), 15.
Garcia DO., Valdez LA., Aceves BA., Bell ML., Humphrey K., Hingle M., McEwen M., & Hooker SP. (2019)
A Gender- and Culturally-Sensitive Weight Loss Intervention for Hispanic Men: Results from The ANIMO
Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. Health Education and Behavior. [PMID: 31216875].
Valdez LA, Morrill K, Griffith D, Lindberg N, Hooker SP & Garcia DO. (2019) Mexican-Origin Male
Perspectives of Health Behaviors Related to Physical Activity. American Journal of Men’s Health [doi:
10.1177/1557988319834122] [PMID: 3089068]
Valdez LA, Garcia DO. Ruiz J, Oren E, Carvajal S. (2019). Understanding the Social and Cultural Contexts
of Alcohol Use in Hispanic Men: A Qualitative Study. Health Education and Behavior. [PMID: 30755045]
Valdez LA, Garcia DO. Ruiz J, Oren E, Carvajal S. (2019). Exploring Structural, Sociolcultural, and
Individual Barriers to Alcohol Abuse Treatment Seeking Behaviors of Hispanic Men. American Journal of
Men’s Health. [PMID: 30051746]
See Dr. Valdez's complete list of publications on Google Scholar