معرفی
Rupa S. Valdez is a Professor at the University of Virginia, holding dual appointments in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering and the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her work bridges human factors engineering, cultural anthropology, and health informatics to improve healthcare systems for marginalized populations, including low-income communities, rural populations, communities of color, and people with disabilities. She is a leader in participatory design methodologies and has testified before Congress on health equity issues. Valdez serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association of People with Disabilities and advises federal agencies such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She founded the Blue Trunk Foundation, focusing on disability advocacy and health equity.
Her research emphasizes the social determinants of health, leveraging ergonomics to address structural barriers in healthcare systems. Key areas include exoskeleton technology for nurses, AI-driven healthcare solutions, and culturally informed mHealth applications for dementia care. Valdez’s work often integrates macroergonomic principles to assess how social networks, environments, and technologies shape patient experiences. Recent projects include NIH-funded investigations into systemic failures affecting people with disabilities and qualitative studies on caregiving networks for children with medical complexity.
In addition to her academic leadership, Valdez has published extensively on health disparities, telehealth accessibility during the pandemic, and citizen science approaches to precision medicine. Her contributions span over 130 peer-reviewed articles and have influenced federal health policies and clinical practices.
Awards and recognitions include her role as an Associate Editor for Ergonomics and Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Open, as well as her advocacy work highlighted in national media. She is actively involved in training the next generation of researchers through interdisciplinary graduate programs at the University of Virginia.
