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

Elizabeth Salerno Valdez, PhD, MPH, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing health inequities among populations experiencing structural disadvantage, with expertise in adolescent health, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, substance use, and structural health interventions.

Dr. Valdez uses community-engaged, participatory, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches to center the lived experiences and expertise of communities in research and intervention development. Her current work examines how structural and economic conditions—including housing insecurity and economic instability—shape health and well-being among parents and children, including through her leadership in the evaluation of Philadelphia’s Philly Joy Bank guaranteed income program. She also leads research examining parenting in the context of medical cannabis use. As a co-investigator on the NIH-funded Community Engaged and Actionable Research to Improve Health (C3), Dr. Valdez supports organizational research capacity building for community-based organizations and their teams conducting intervention research across the US. She has extensive experience using Youth Participatory Action Research, Photovoice, and other participatory approaches to understand and address health inequities among marginalized youth and young parents.

Across her work, Dr. Valdez is committed to moving beyond traditional models of community “participation” toward research in which communities meaningfully shape the questions, methods, interpretation, and application of evidence. Her scholarship has contributed to more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, state health departments, foundations, and community partners.

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