Adina Nack, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Book this person as a speaker:

Email: nack@callutheran.edu
Phone: (805) 493-3438

Speeches:

• Social Dimensions of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

• Exploring Messages about Sexuality and Power in Music Videos
  This talk focuses on the use of sexual images in music videos and how those images affect the viewers, particularly young people

• Gardasil and other STD Vaccines: Social Implications
  This talk focuses on the new vaccine for HPV and other STD vaccines that are currently being marketed and promoted by the medical community.

A tenured professor of sociology, Dr. Adina Nack received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and joined CLU in 2003, after having been faculty at the University of Maine. At CLU, Dr. Nack has served in the past as Chair of the Sociology Department, Director of CLU's Center for Equality & Justice, and as the Director of CLU's Gender & Women's Studies Program.

Dr. Nack is a medical sociologist whose research has focused on sexual health, social psychology, social inequality, gender, and sexuality. An award-winning teacher, she has also won national research awards, published articles on the stigma of sexually transmitted diseases, and authored a book on women living with genital herpes and HPV infections published by Temple University Press in 2008. Her co-authored article was recently published on a study of women who have had abortions with a focus on theorizing their individual-level stigma experiences [Co-PI Kate Cockrill from ANSIRH, University of California - San Francisco]. She is currently collaborating on an in-depth interview study of physically traumatic childbirth experiences from the perspectives of the women, their significant others, and health care providers [Co-PIs from CLU and also from CMQCC, Stanford Medical School].

A proponent of community-based action research, Nack was a Co-Principal Investigator for Ventura County’s two studies of Latinos/as receiving HIV/AIDS services (funded by the California State Office of AIDS). The first study inspired the 2006 countywide HIV & Latinos: A Leadership Summit which led to the creation of the Latino HIV Taskforce. In addition to her work with VCPH, she has also served as a research consultant for the ELCA Sexuality Studies Taskforce, Western Institute of Hearing, United Women's Leadership Council, and AIDS Desk (Chennai, India).

A member of the HIV/AIDS Coalition of Ventura County since 2003, Nack chairs the county's World AIDS Day Committee.

Research, Teaching, and Community Service Awards:

• 2018 Community Hero Award – Granted by Diversity Collective Ventura County


• 2016 Diversity Professor of the Year Award – Granted by California Lutheran University Student Body


• 2009 Writers Workshop for Feminist Scholars – Scholarship granted by Ms. Magazine


• 2009 Best of Ventura County Award for "Best Person to Talk to About Sex" – Granted by the VC Reporter and its readers


• 2009 Diversity Professor of the Year Award – Granted by California Lutheran University Student Body


• 2008 Ventura County Community Member of the Year Award – Granted by Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties


• 2006 Mark Vartanian AIDS Advocacy Award – Granted by Ventura County Rainbow Alliance


• 2004 Professor of the Year Award – Granted by California Lutheran University Student Body


• 2001 Herbert Blumer Award – Granted by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction


• 1994 Phi Beta Kappa – inducted at the University of California, Irvine