Robert Otto Valdez, PhD
Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Robert Otto Valdez, PhD, MHSA, is the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the lead federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of health care for all Americans.
An internationally recognized expert in health services research, the U.S. health care system, and health policy analysis, Valdez has dedicated his career to public service, working in both academia and government for the past 40+ years.
A UCLA Bruin, Valdez was a professor of health services at the now UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, from 1985–1999. He also directed the MBA/MPH program, in collaboration with the UCLA Anderson School of Management and served as associate director of the Chicano Studies Research Center.
From 1993–1997, Valdez served at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as deputy assistant secretary for health (public health service) and simultaneously as director of Interagency Health Policy (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
Before joining DHHS, Valdez served as a special senior advisor to the Clinton White House on health care reform. He chaired the healthcare reform benefits workgroup and was a member of the analytic modeling workgroup. He previously served in the Office of Child Health for the Health Care Financing Administration during the Carter Administration.
Valdez started his career as the lead child health researcher for the historic RAND Health Insurance Experiment. He has led numerous global health care initiatives with the Pan American Health Organization and the University of California. His health promotion and disease prevention work with Univision Communications Corporation, “Salud es Vida: ¡Enterate!” was recognized with journalism’s prestigious Peabody Award.
Valdez was the founding executive director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico, where he also served as RWJF Professor Emeritus of Family & Community Medicine and Economics. He previously served as the founding Dean at the Drexel University School of Public Health.