About

A tenured professor of Sociology and Director of the Public Health Program, Adina Nack received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and joined California Lutheran University in 2003, after having been faculty at the University of Maine. At CLU, Nack has served as Chair of the Sociology Department, Director of the University Honors Program, Director of CLU's Center for Equality & Justice, and as the Director of CLU's Gender & Women's Studies Program. As a medical sociologist, her research has focused on reproductive and sexual health. An award-winning teacher, she has also won national research awards, published numerous research articles, and authored a book about one of her studies (Temple University Press). She recently collaborated on a study of maternal morbidities with a Co-PI from CMQCC, Stanford Medical School for NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 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). 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 coordinates annual events with the county's World AIDS Day Committee.

Research, Teaching, and Community Service Awards:

• 2021 Service Award – Granted by the College of Arts & Sciences (co-awarded to Dr. Paloma Vargas)
• 2020 Administrative Fellowship – Granted by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences
• 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

Education

Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.A. in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine: Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Expertise

• Public Health
• Medical Sociology
• Sexuality
• Deviance
• Gender
• Social Psychology
• Ethnographic Methods

Publications

The following list includes selected publications -- please see C.V. for a full list of publications and conference presentations:

Books, Journal Articles & Book Chapters

2024. “’We don’t’ really address the trauma’: Patients Perspectives on Postpartum     Care Needs after Severe Maternal Morbidities.” Maternal and Child Health      Journal, print date TBA, published online June 12, 2024: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-024-03927-1

2024. “Love (and Lust) in the Age of Viruses: Sexual Health and Relationships.” In Families as They Really Are (3rd Edition), edited by Virginia E. Rutter, Kristi      Williams and Barbara J. Risman. W.W. Norton & Company: New York City, NY.

2015. “First Comes Love, Then Comes Herpes: Sexual Health and Relationships.” in Families As They Really Are (2nd Edition), edited by Barbara Risman and Virginia Rutter. W.W. Norton & Company: New York City, NY.

2013.  Co-authored with Kate Cockrill. “‘I’m Not That Type of Person’: The Stigma of Having an Abortion in the Contemporary U.S.” Deviant Behavior, 34(12): 973-90.

2011. “From Damaged Goods to Empowered Patients” in Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social Justice. Edited by Kathleen Odell Korgen, Jonathan White and Shelley K. White. Newbury Park, CA: Pine Forge Press/SAGE Publications.

2015. Reprinted in Sociologists in Action on Inequalities: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. Edited by Shelley K. White, Jonathan M. White and Kathleen Odell Korgen. Newbury Park, CA: Pine Forge Press/SAGE Publications.

2008. “From the Patient’s Point of View: Practitioner Interaction Styles in the Treatment of Women with Chronic STDs” Pp. 95-122 in Major Health Problems and Population Health Concerns: Impacts on Patients, Providers and Policy. Edited by Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld. WA, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

2008. Damaged Goods? Women Living with Incurable Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Temple University Press.

2009. Excerpt of Chapter 1 “Mixing Morality with Medicine” in Speaking of Sexuality: Interdisciplinary Readings (Third Edition). Edited by J. Kenneth Davidson, Nelwyn B. Moore, and Terri D. Fisher. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

2006. “Sexuality over the Lifespan: Social Trends Pose Moral Dilemmas for Communities of Faith.” Intersections (Spring): 16-20.

2002. “Bad Girls and Fallen Women: Chronic STD Diagnoses as Gateways to Tribal Stigma.” Symbolic Interaction 25(4): 463-485. [Reprinted in two anthologies]

2000. "Damaged Goods: Women Managing the Stigma of STDs." Deviant Behavior (21):95-121. [Reprinted in 10 anthologies]

Research/Policy Reports

2020. "Women's Experiences with Severe Maternal Morbidity in New York City: a Qualitative Report": NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (co-authored with Folake Eniola, Paulomi Niles, Christine Morton, and Hannah Searing. [Report served as basis for NYC's "The Severe Maternal Morbidity Toolkit"]

2008. Latinas Who Access HIV/AIDS Services in Ventura County: Report to HIV/AIDS Service Providers & Educators (co-authored with Lyn Gesch, Ph.D.)

2007. Latino Men Who Access HIV/AIDS Services in Ventura County: Report to HIV/AIDS Service Providers (co-authored with Lyn Gesch, Ph.D.)

Book and Film Reviews for Academic Journals

2024. Book Review. Sexualizing Cancer: HPV and the Politics of Cancer Prevention by Laura Mamo. Gender & Society, https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432241237993.  

2013. “Film Review: Sext Up Kids: How Children Are Becoming Hypersexualized.” Humanity & Society, 37(3): 259-261.

2007. Book Review. Gender, Race, Class, & Health: Intersectional Approaches by Amy J. Schulz and Leith Mullings. Gender & Society 21 (2):297-8.

2001. Book Review. Ideologies of Breast Cancer: Feminist Perspectives edited by Laura K. Potts. Contemporary Sociology 30(3):300-01.

Non-fiction Articles & other Research-Based Publications

2010. “Why Men’s Health is a Feminist Issue: As New Uses are Approved for the So-Called Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Women Learn Once Again how Intimately their Well-being is Tied to Men’s.” Ms. Magazine (Winter):32-35.

2009. "Valentine's Day Fact Sheet on Sexual Health." Council on Contemporary Families: https://contemporaryfamilies.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2009_Factsheet_Nack_Valentinesday.pdf 

2007. “A Search for Truth and a Call for Freedom.” CLU Magazine (Summer): 21.                                

2005. “A Visit from the GLBT Fairy Godmother.” in the ASA Teaching Guide: Teaching Sociological Concepts and the Sociology of Gender. Edited by Marybeth C. Stalp and Julie Childers. Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association Teaching Resources Center.

2002. “Empathy as a Path to Critical Thinking.” SWS Network News: The Newsletter of Sociologists for Women in Society 19 (4):9-11.                                                                                                        

2000. “Out of the Stirrups and into Stigma: Creating a Sociology of STDs.” SWS Network News: The Newsletter of Sociologists for Women in Society 18(2):8-9.

Grant Funding

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS & RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS

2025        Grant: Kaiser Permanente to CLU’s Public Health Program to fund Public Health Internship Course and Fellowships
2024        Grant: Kaiser Permanente to CLU’s Public Health Program to fund Public Health Internship Fellowships

2023        Grant: Kaiser Permanente to CLU’s Public Health Program to fund Public Health Internship Fellowships

2022        Grant: COAS Dean’s Mini Grant to fund experiential learning activity for World AIDS Day 2022 that connected Cal Lu students with Quilt Project Gold Coast to learn about and create AIDS Memorial Quilt panels

2022        Grant: Kaiser Permanente to CLU’s Public Health Program to fund development of and first semester of Public Health Internship Course and Fellowships

2018-20 “Women’s Experiences of Severe Maternal Morbidity in New York City”: Research consultant with Dr. Christine Morton (Stanford University Medical School), in collaboration with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene with funding from Merck for Mothers.

2015     Culver Fellowship for Social and Behavioral Science Research: California Lutheran University (Student Fellow H. Conner)

2014     CEJ Fellowship for Research in Service of Communities: California Lutheran University, Center for Equality & Justice (Co-PI J. Banker & Student Fellow H. Conner)

2013        Faculty Research and Creative Works Award: California Lutheran University

2012        Funded Research Collaboration: ANSIRH, UC San Francisco

2012        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2012        Grant: McCune Foundation to CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice

2011        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2010        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2009        Scholarship: Writers’ Workshop for Feminist Scholars: Ms. Magazine

2009        Grant: Ventura County AIDS Partnership, Co-Applicant Laura Ochoa

2009        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2008        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2007        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2006-07    Funded Research Collaboration: California State Office of AIDS. Co-Principal investigator with Dr. Lyn Gesch, in collaboration with Ventura County Public Health and Ventura County AIDS Project: A Dual Pilot Study of Ventura County Latinas and HIV/AIDS

2006        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2005-06    Funded Research Collaboration: California State Office of AIDS. Co-Principal investigator with Dr. Lyn Gesch, in collaboration with Ventura County Public Health and Ventura County AIDS Project: Latino Men Living with HIV/AIDS.

2005        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2004        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2003        Hewlett Grant: California Lutheran University

2002        Faculty Summer Research Grant: University of Maine

2002        Women in the Curriculum Grant: Women’s Studies Program, UniversityofMaine

1999        Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant: Graduate School, UniversityofColorado,Boulder

1997        American Association of University Women, Brown/Ricketts/Udick Grant: Boulder AAUW

1996        University Fellowship:  Graduate School, University of Colorado, Boulder