Dr. Pamela Valera is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health and serves as the Ph.D. Director at the School of Public Health, Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of San Francisco, an MSW from the University of Michigan, and a PhD., in Social Work from the University of South Carolina. In addition to her academic background, Dr. Valera has completed a three-year NIMH T32 postdoctoral research fellowship in HIV Prevention and Human Sexuality at the Columbia University/New York Psychiatric Institute, as well as clinical training in cancer health from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and also an NHLBI R25 Program to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE) fellowship from SUNY Downstate Medical Center.
Dr. Valera’s research focuses on the drivers of health inequities in marginalized groups, including people living with HIV, those at risk for HIV, and people involved in the criminal justice system). At Rutgers School of Public Health, she developed the Community Health Justice Lab (http://www.chjl.org), where members address inequity in health promotion activities among medically underserved and hidden populations. Dr. Valera uses the social determinants of health lens to explore health behaviors and health promotion strategies to reduce the detrimental effects of incarceration.