[1] After leaving Concordia, Valaskakis served as Director of Research at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Ottawa.
In 1961, Valaskakis graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in Education, majoring in Speech and Drama with a minor in English.
Later, she completed her PhD dissertation entitled "A communicational analysis of Eskimo-Kabloona interaction patterns: Southern Baffin, Eastern Arctic" at McGill University in 1979.
[5] While at Concordia, Valaskakis was also responsible for the establishment of the Native Education Centre on campus and was involved in the establishment of the Inter-University Joint Doctoral Programme in Communications with the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Université de Montréal.
[1] In 2000, Valaskakis was hired as the research director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; she held this position until her death in 2007.