Alex Valadka serves as Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he is also Chief of Neurological Surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He has had a career-long clinical and research interest in neurotrauma and neurocritical care, including numerous papers, presentations, research grants, courses, seminars, and visiting professorships. He has served in numerous leadership roles in neurosurgery and neurotrauma, including President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, Chair of the Neurosurgical Specialty Group of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, and membership on numerous study sections, data and safety monitoring boards, and similar activities for the NIH and other organizations.

Dr. Valadka graduated from the University of Dallas and went on to medical school at the University of Chicago. His interest in neurotrauma and neurocritical care led him to pursue his neurosurgical residency at the Medical College of Virginia. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He held positions at several other institutions in Texas before chairing the Department of Neurosurgery at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He returned to Texas in 2022.