Eminent social work scholar Avelardo Valdez has been appointed as the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. A pioneering researcher known for his studies of the consequences of drug abuse and violence, Valdez has helped frame the national conversation around criminal justice policies including drug enforcement and sentencing laws.

Valdez researches what some call hidden populations, such as youth and prison gang members, heroin users, sex workers, aging drug users, and crack users. Numerous federal grants have funded his research, including a study tracing San Antonio, Texas, gang members from adolescence into adulthood that was one of the first longitudinal studies to examine the social and health consequences of the gang lifestyle. 

A One-of-a-Kind Endowed Professorship

“Dr. Valdez’s endowed professorship is a well-deserved honor,” said John D. Clapp, professor and interim dean at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. “His research has driven discussion within and outside the field of social work and impacted policy that makes a difference in people’s lives. As the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population, Valdez will continue to advance the school’s commitment to improve the well-being of vulnerable individuals and communities.”

The unique endowed professorship was established in 2013 by Helen Ramirez, MSW ’59. Doing so embodies her deep desire to recognize her parents’ commitment to education, which propelled her out of the Central Valley agriculture fields and into a career in social work.  

“My father had to quit school in the 6th grade to help the family, and my mother did not even remember going that far,” said Ramirez in a 2015 article in Partners Magazine. “But they were both convinced and supportive that all five of their children should finish high school. They really pushed us, against cultural expectation.”

When she had learned the plan to create a social work professorship specifically targeting the Latino community, Ramirez seized the opportunity to honor her parents as well as support the research needed to create real change in the system for families like hers.

Research Rooted in Community

Changing how policymakers and others think about the Latino community and the systemic forces that shape people’s lives is at the heart of Valdez’s research. His participation on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration drew attention a few years ago for its call to significantly cut prison rates by revising criminal justice policies that have caused the U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults by far the largest in the world. He attributes the rise not to an increase in crime but to policies enacted throughout the 1970s and 1980s that expanded the use of incarceration for lesser offenses and increased time served, making drug crimes more severely policed and punished, and urged a shift in thinking about current criminal justice policies.

In addition to his own research, Valdez pays it forward to the next generation of researchers through a summer institute he has led for decades designed to boost young scholars’ careers and strengthen their ability to tackle the critical issue of substance abuse among vulnerable populations. The Interdisciplinary Research Training Institute on Hispanic Drug Abuse aims to promote the careers of new researchers through exposure to research in the field, networking, and trainings including writing successful grant applications. 

Making a difference for future generations is also what Ramirez sought to do as a social worker. She served as director with the Los Angeles County Department of Adoptions for six-and-a-half years beginning in 1978, advocating for research, education and policies to advance the well-being of Latinos. In that role, she developed new and nationally recognized programs to benefit the community, including her advocacy for placing Latino babies with Latino families. She also created the first all bilingual, bicultural unit at a time when many didn’t understand the need for it. Her work earned her induction into the California Social Work Hall of Distinction in 2014.

“I’m very honored to be selected as the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population. I truly support its premise of trying to improve the social position and health of Latino people and believe it aligns perfectly with the work I have been involved in for my entire scholarly career,” Valdez said. “The professorship has created an important legacy of support for research impacting Latinos and has bolstered the work being done, not just by me, but by many other scholars, at the school of social work to advance scholarship that supports the well-being of Latinos and promotes informed policymaking.”

An Internationally Recognized Scholar

Valdez holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in urban affairs from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, as well as a master’s degree and PhD in sociology from UCLA. As a student in the 1960s, Valdez became interested in social movements and community organizing, and spent several years as a community activist and labor organizer in Milwaukee, Miami and New York. Following his doctoral studies, he spent 22 years at the University of Texas at San Antonio and 10 years at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Valdez joined USC in 2011. 

His most recent book, Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk, explores the vulnerability of young females connected to male street-based youth gangs involved in violence, drug use, crime and sexual behavior and the relationship they have with others in their community, including family members and peers.

Valdez has received numerous federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Valdez is the second faculty member to hold the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population since its establishment in 2013. USC Emeritus Provost Professor and former Executive Director of the USC Roybal Institute on Aging William Vega, now retired, was the inaugural appointee.