Carmen R. Valdez Assistant Professor

Vita

Background

Dr. Carmen R. Valdez received her masters' degree in Clinical Psychology at Loyola College in Maryland and her doctorate in School Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed a predoctoral internship at the Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical Center, where she received training and supervision in the Latino development and adaptation of a well-established prevention program for families facing depression. Her clinical and research training in the area of depression and underserved families has been further strengthened through the completion of a postdoctoral fellowship in prevention and intervention research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined the Department of Counseling Psychology at UW-Madison in 2006. In addition, she is an affiliate of the Collaborative Center for Health Equity (CCHE), the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), both at the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison. She is also an affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and Chican@ and Latin@  Studies (CLS). Dr. Valdez holds a professional license in psychology in the State of Wisconsin.

Research Interests

Dr. Valdez's primary area of interest is in depression and community-based interventions with underserved families, particularly Latino families. She is also interested in how families cope with stress and in the provision of culturally-competent services in the community.

Research Projects

Please follow this link to learn more about Dr. Valdez' research projects.

Dr. Valdez and the Fortalezas Familiares Research Team

Previous Projects

As part of her doctoral training, Dr. Valdez was actively involved in the development and implementation of Keeping Families Strong (KFS), a NIMH-funded prevention program designed to reduce the impact of parental depression on children, particularly the increased risk of depression and other negative outcomes. Prior to her appointment at the UW-Madison, Dr. Valdez was the clinical director of KFS and the lead developer of the parent protocol of the intervention. She also evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of KFS as a sustainable adjunct service to individual treatment in mental health clinics.

At UW-Madison, Dr. Valdez adapted the KFS Program to Latino families in Wisconsin (see current projects). In preparation for the cultural adaptation, she interviewed medical and mental health providers’ about their culturally-centered recognition and treatment of depression in Latinos. She and her research team also focused on understanding the literature on Latino mental health, mental health disparities, intervention development and adaptation, and facilitated focus groups to further inform their adaptation.

Consistent with her research on culturally-competent provision of services in the community, in 2007-2008 Dr. Valdez evaluated the effectiveness of a teen depression video (It's Time!) on teachers’ recognition of depression.

Current Projects

With CTSA funds from the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and matching funds from the Morgridge Center for Public Service, both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Valdez is currently piloting the adapted KFS program for Latino families in Madison. The adapted program, "Fortalezas Familiares" (Family Strengths) is conducted in a community health center and will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention in these settings.

Dr. Valdez is also an Investigator on an NICHD-funded study, Children, Families, and Schools, that began in the Spring of 2008, to evaluate the effects of parents’ social capital on Latino children’s social and cognitive development. This study is being conducted with 3,000 Latino families in San Antonio, TX and Phoenix, AZ. Social capital is being manipulated through random assignment to a comparison group and to an intervention group. The intervention used is Families and Schools Together (FAST). She is currently preparing manuscripts on the effects of acculturation on families' social capital, the effects of anti-immigrant climate on Latino families' social capital, and on the applicability of culturally-sensitive research in randomized clinical trials.

Future Projects

Dr. Valdez plans to collaborate with colleagues nationally to evaluate the effectiveness of "Fortalezas Familiares" on reducing Latina teen suicidality. A related project entails the program's effectiveness with Latino men with depression.

Scholarship

Her work has appeared in journals such as The Counseling Psychologist, Child Psychiatry and Human Development, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, Family Therapy, School Psychology Quarterly, Cognitive Therapy and Research, and The Family Psychologist. She has co-authored chapters on childhood depression and intervention. Dr. Valdez is an active member of the American Psychological Association (APA), and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). She has presented her work at APA and SRCD.

Academic Teaching

While at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Valdez has taught Family Techniques in Counseling and the Masters Community Practicum, both in the masters' program. She has also taught the Groups Practicum course and Multicultural Counseling.

Community Involvement

Between 2007-2010, Dr. Valdez served on the Executive Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - Wisconsin Chapter. As the Chair of the Education Subcommittee, she took the lead in revising the Resource Guide for Consumers and Families. Dr. Valdez holds a special interest in academic-community partnerships and is collaborating with several agencies in the state of Wisconsin to improve services for underserved populations in the community.

Contact Information

Office: Rm 301
Phone: 263-4493
Feel free to contact by email

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