Dana M. C. Valdez, M.D.

Dana Valdez, M.D., graduated from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Lubbock, Texas. He completed his residency in psychiatry at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, where he served as chief resident. He went on to finish a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at the University of Southern California Institute of Psychiatry, Law, and Behavioral Science.

During residency, he underwent additional training in treatment-resistant mood disorders at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA’s Mood Disorders Clinic. He also received a certificate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, California. Over the course of training, he developed a special interest in how individuals with mental illness become entangled in the criminal justice system and began working with the Office of Diversion and Reentry within the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which develops and implements programs to divert people with serious mental health needs away from the LA County Jail and into community-based care. With ODR, he delivered and eventually helped oversee treatment across the continuum of care, ranging from correctional to community-based competency restoration units and supportive housing.

After relocating to Austin, he worked with Integral Care, where he provided assertive community treatment services to the residents of Travis County. He joined the department to provide inpatient psychiatric services at Ascension Seton Shoal Creek; following its closure, he transitioned to Austin State Hospital. His professional interests include clinical education and criminal justice diversion for individuals with mental health needs.