Valerie has served on several non-profit boards including the Ploughshares Fund, Global Zero, the United Way of Santa Fe County, Penn State University School of International Affairs, and Postpartum Support International. She is the founder of Fair Game PAC, which was set up to help fund candidates, especially women, who are concerned about the nuclear threat and climate change.

Valerie is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, which was released as a major motion picture of the same name starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. Along with Sarah Lovett, she has published the well-received fictional spy thrillers Blowback and Burned. 

A graduate of Penn State, Valerie holds Master's degrees from the London School of Economics and the College of Europe. She recently ran for the Congressional seat in Northern New Mexico. Valerie is the mother of twenty-something aged twins and lives in New Mexico.