Researcher profile

Elizabeth Salerno Valdez

Dr. Elizabeth “Libby” Salerno Valdez is an assistant professor at Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University 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 among historically marginalized communities. Dr. Valdez received the Kirschstein-National Research Services Award F31 (F31MD01243) from NIMHD to conduct her dissertation, which engaged adolescents in a youth participatory action research project using mixed methods to examine environmental factors that influence adolescent substance use at the U.S.-Mexico border. She is currently co-PI on the four-year study Using Participatory Methods to Examine Structural Drivers of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Inequities in Massachusetts, funded by MA Department of Public Health. Community-led study findings are actively used by the MA Department of Public Health to initiate policy and systems change in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, housing, transportation, childcare, and other social services. She is also co-PI on a pilot study funded by MA Dept of Public Health to develop a peer-to-peer family ambassador program to combat the effects of structural violence on young parents and their families. Dr. Valdez’s future 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 youth participatory action research as an intervention to combat the negative effects of structural violence on adolescent health.