Valdez is professor of Family & Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Economics in the College of Arts & Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the RAND Graduate School for Public Policy Studies where he specialized in studies of health care financing and quality of care for children. He studied Health Policy & Administration at the University of Michigan and History and Science at Harvard University.

Valdez served as the Founding Executive Director of the RWJF Center for Health Policy at UNM. He previously served as founding Dean at the Drexel University School of Public Health. From 1985 through 1999, he was Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health and directed the health services doctoral studies program.

Valdez started his health policy career as a lead researcher for the historic RAND Health Insurance Experiment. He is internationally recognized as an expert on health services research, the U.S. health care system, and health policy analysis.

From 1993 to 1997 he served at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Public Health Service and Director of Interagency Health Policy, Health Care Financing Administration. Prior to joining DHHS, he served as a Senior Advisor to the White House on health care reform.