Valentine M. Villa, PhD, MSG, MPA, is a faculty associate at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is also a professor of social work and director of the Applied Gerontology Institute at California State University, Los Angeles. Villa was a NIA pre-doctoral fellow in demography and aging at USC’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. She has the distinction of being the first person in the nation to receive a PhD in gerontology.
Prior to obtaining her doctoral degree, Villa worked for five years developing health education and social service programs for older adults in both community and hospital settings. Her primary research focus is in minority aging and health disparities. Her most recent work examines the health of the Latino Baby Boom population and draws implications for aging policy. Villa has authored/co-authored nearly 60 publications, including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and policy briefs. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in advanced research methods, minority aging and advanced aging policy to students in gerontology, social work and public health. Over the course of her 25-year career in academia, she has also served as a PI/Co-PI on several research grants.
In addition to her scholarly work, Villa has served on several county and citywide projects to improve the health and access to services for low-income and minority-aging populations. Most recently, she was lead editor and an author on the Purposeful Aging Los Angeles (PALA) project. PALA is a Los Angeles county-wide project to improve the livability of Los Angeles for the older adult population. Currently, Villa is a member of the Equity Work Group for the Master Plan on Aging for the state of California, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. In this capacity, Villa works with her colleagues to ensure that all recommendations put forth for health and long-term care are accessible to all populations, including women, minority populations, the disabled, and other populations often overlooked in public policy decisions.
Villa’s goal as a scholar is to utilize her research, teaching, and service to build a bridge between the research, policy, and practice arenas for the betterment of the health and well-being of diverse aging populations.
