Kevin Nadal

Education and academic career

Nadal graduated with his bachelor's degrees in psychology and political science from the University of California, Irvine. He received a Master's in counseling from Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Columbia University in 2008. He is currently an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He was granted tenure and promotion, after just three years as an assistant professor.

Nadal's research concentrates on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender. His writings also focus on the concept of racial microaggressions, and other microaggressions or subtle forms of discrimination towards racial/ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ populations. He is the author of over 90 publications in the fields of psychology and education. Some of these include his published Racial and Ethnic Microaggression Scale, as well as Women and Mental Disorders: a four-volume set which highlights women's psychological health from a feminist and multicultural perspective.

In 2014, Nadal was appointed as the Executive Director of CLAGS: the Center for LGBTQ Studies (formerly known as Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies) at the The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is documented as the first person of color to hold this position in the organization's conception in 1991. In this position, he founded the LGBTQ Scholars of Color National Network- which has gathered national conferences. Through CLAGS, he also created the José Esteban Muñoz Award to honor individuals who have advanced LGBTQ Studies through their activism. Past winners of the award (including Janet Mock, Jose Antonio Vargas, Frenchie Davis, and Nathan Lee Graham) have each participated in a public conversation with Nadal during LGBT Pride Month in New York in June.

In 2015, Nadal became the president of the Asian American Psychological Association- the oldest national organization advocating for Asian American mental health. He is noted as being the first openly gay person to hold this position since the organization's founding in 1972. In the organization, Nadal also confounded the Division on Filipino Americans and the Division on LGBTQQ people.

Nadal is a national trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society, also known as FANHS. He was also the head conference coordinator of the FANHS biennial national conference in New York City in June 2016. Speakers included Jose Antonio Vargas, Honorable Lorna G. Schofield, Geena Rocero, Paolo Montalbán, Joe Bataan, Ali Ewoldt, Ernabel Demillo, Mia Alvar, and others. The event gathered 700 participants from all over the US - including Hawai'i, Alaska, California, and Texas.

Entertainment career

Nadal is a comedian, actor, and performance artist who has performed at venues all over the United States and Canada. He has performed three one-man shows at venues in New York City like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Bowery Poetry Club, the Actors Temple, and the Kraine Theater. In 2006, he performed a cabaret show called "Psychotherapy" at the Duplex in New York. He has performed at hundreds of colleges and universities all over the country, as well as national Filipino American, Asian American, and LGBTQ conferences and conventions. He was also featured in the independent film, Brown Soup Thing (2008).

In 2014, Nadal launched "Out Talk with Dr. Kevin Nadal" - an online talkshow devoted to social justice issues, produced by John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

For Filipino American History Month (which is celebrated in October) in 2016, Nadal collaborated with Marissa Aroy, on her short film TGIF- Thank God I'm Filipino!

Personal life

Nadal is the son of Leo and Charity Nadal of Numancia, Aklan and Malinao, Aklan in the Philippines. Nadal reports that his parents were the first in their families to emigrate (his mother in 1965, his father in 1969).

Nadal was raised in Fremont, California which he described as "a large Filipino-American community in the San Francisco Bay Area"; he also reports his "high school was about 40% Filipino." During his high school years, Nadal reports being bullied for being gay. Since 2010, he has become vocal about ending bullying in schools.

During his college years at University of California, Irvine, Nadal was president of Kababayan- the Filipino American college student organization.

Nadal lived in East Lansing, Michigan when he pursued a master's degree at Michigan State University. In 2002, Nadal moved to New York City to pursue a doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. During this time, Nadal was mentored by renowned psychologist Derald Wing Sue. Sue later wrote the foreword for Nadal's first book.

In 2005, The Guardian wrote an article called "The Man Who Married Himself"- describing Nadal's self-marriage and wedding ceremony.

In 2013, Nadal proposed to RJ Mendoza via a surprise musical performance. The moment was covered by The Advocate. The couple was married in 2014. Nadal reports that their wedding included "traditional Filipino and Hawaiian customs."

Desperate Housewives controversy

Nadal gained national and international attention when he started an online petition against ABC Studios for the negative statements made about Philippine medical schools on the television show Desperate Housewives.. The petition gained hundreds of thousands of signatures in a few days on PetitionOnline (being noted as one of the fastest growing online petitions of all time). This led to several media appearances, including an interview with Bill O'Reilly on the O'Reilly Factor.

Filipino American Psychology

Dr. Nadal's book Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice has gained attention in the US and the Philippines for being the first comprehensive book on Filipino American mental health issues. In 2009, he toured all over the United States and Canada, promoting the book, speaking at colleges and universities, while also performing standup comedy, and poetry.

Nadal's second book, Filipino American Psychology: A Collection of Personal Narratives was released in July 2010. It contains stories from an array of Filipino American professors, artists, activists, and students.

In 2015, Nadal released "Filipinos in New York City" in collaboration with the Filipino American National Historical Society Metropolitan New York Chapter. Published by Arcadia Publishing, as part of the Images of America Series, the book highlights the history of Filipino Americans in New York City from 1888 to the present.

Microaggressions Research

Nadal is one of the leading researchers who have contributed to Microaggression Theory. He is a co-author on the 2007 American Psychologist article on racial microaggressions, alongside his academic mentor Dr. Derald Wing Sue. As of December 2016, the article had been cited over 1650 times in academic journals.

Nadal has written about racial micoaggressions towards various groups, including African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and Filipino Americans. He created and published the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale in the Journal of Counseling Psychology in 2011; it was the first-known quantitative scale to measure microaggressions.

Nadal was the first to research "sexual orientation microaggressions" and "gender identity microaggressions." In 2013, Nadal released "'That's So Gay!' Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community." The book was published by the American Psychological Association. Since Nadal's earliest writings on microaggressions toward LGBT people, dozens of academic articles on the topic have emerged.

Awards and Recognitions

Nadal has received many accolades for his achievements - including academic awards, community awards, and media recognitions.

In 2006, Nadal was named one of the hottest bachelors of People Magazine.

Nadal received Early Career Awards from the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program, the APA Society for the Psychological Study of Racial and Ethnic Issues, and the Asian American Psychological Association. He was also named a Rising Star by the National Multicultural Conference and Summit.

In 2013, Buzzfeed listed Nadal as one of 27 "Filipinos who make you proud to be pinoy". Two years later, Buzzfeed listed Nadal as one of 34 Filipino American trailblazers.

In April 2015, Nadal received John Jay College's Scholarly Excellence Award.

In October 2015, Nadal was named one of the Outstanding Filipino Americans of New York.

In December 2016, the American Psychological Association announced that Nadal was the 2017 recipient of the Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. The coveted award recognizes “a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of outstanding contributions.” The highly prestigious award includes an honorarium, an opportunity to present at the APA Annual Convention, and an invitation to submit a paper to the American Psychologist.