Meet Dr. Kevin Nguyen-Stockbridge, Chapman University’s first director of LGBTQ+ pride and achievement.

He was hired on June 12, but is no stranger to Chapman. Nguyen-Stockbridge previously taught in the Attallah College of Educational Studies and even received his Ph.D. from the school in 2017. As a graduate student, he taught in the LGBTQ+ studies minor.

Upon graduation, he launched the LGBTQ+ and Inclusion Coordinator position at North Dakota State University. 

Now, he is eager to bring more inclusion to the university, pulling from his education, academic research and personal experiences.

With his first school year beginning in a new role, The Panther pounced at the chance to sit down with Nguyen-Stockbdrige to get to know who he is and his plans he hopes to bring to Chapman.

Nguyen-Stockbridge’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity and stylistic standards.

Q: What are your duties as Director of LGBTQ+ Pride And Achievement?

A: There's a whole number of them. To start off, it's a role that kind of serves the entire institution, so students and faculty and staff. The role also is really serving the institution as a whole as it serves those kinds of populations. And tangentially, also alumni, and supporting that because that's also a key piece of who we are as Panthers. 

Looking generally, the roles include being an advisor. One of my key roles is to be an advisor to the vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), especially around LGBTQ+ realities and issues, practice and policy and things that are happening in the world to support awareness and advocacy across the campus. So, that happens through programming and support and partnering. 

I can serve at times to represent the DEI office or the university if we are going out, particularly as a DEI group to outside agencies. I also bring community considerations to the table within the university if that's needed and that goes along with advisement. 

I am a connection between students and student organizations and departments around work that we're doing with DEI, but also specific to LGBTQ+ issues. I think of myself as a support and a resource and a partner. So there's lots of things happening and how can I serve and bring together multiple constituencies so that everything that we're doing as a university around LGBTQ+ is thriving?

Q: What sort of things should LGBTQ+ students be approaching you about specifically, or general topics that you welcome?

A: I'm pretty generally open actually, so anything from maybe asking about resources, like what resources exist on the campus? So maybe somebody finds themselves in need, and they're not quite sure where to go. They can reach out to me. Perhaps the question that they have is particularly connected to, let's say, their LGBTQIA identity. I am happy to be a kind of resource and to connect with also. 

I definitely welcome students to come in and share ideas of things that they would love to see on campus or ideas about what we might do as we imagine this work on Chapman's campus. 

Students might have questions about resources beyond our campus, and I'm happy to try and connect them with that. For example, there might be things around gender, gender identity, gender transitions and processes that perhaps people are looking for connections, and I'm happy to connect them with that.

I'm a theorist, and my research is in LGBTQ+ identity for teachers in Catholic schools and how they navigate that kind of complicated process. It's about, like, ‘I have this kind of academic question about queerness and my development, my intellectual development,’ come and share. If I don't have the answer, I'm committed to finding a connection and a way for students to find that pathway and to thrive.

Q: What impact are you looking to create on campus in this new position? 

A: My hope is to be a resource and a partner for a thriving community, so one of the big impacts is to create a space of resourcing and a space of advisement. The buckets that I talked about are really some key impacts that I want to make around recruitment and welcome, development and launch.

How are students going to be successful as alumni in the world? So I'd like to really see some kind of impact positively around each of those buckets because of working with other people who are already doing it — like the experts are doing it — I'm just hoping to be a facilitator to help in the work that they're doing. I'd love for us to have increased LGBTQIA visibility on campus. 

And I love in some ways to really see an increase in a sense of belonging as an LGBTQIA Panther. And so I just want to understand where our sense of belonging is now and how can I promote and increase that sense of belonging — not promote it — but make the situation so that somebody can feel more belonging? 

I asked these LGBTQ+ teachers whether they felt belonging within the Catholic school. And because we are humans, sometimes we check a part of us off and like we can push it off to the side, so as teachers, did they feel part of the school? Absolutely. So then I said, well, as LGBTQ people, do you feel a part of the Catholic school? And they had never thought of that connection. 

My desire is to know that there's an increased sense of belonging: ‘as an LGBTQ+ Panther, where I know that I belong and that this is also my home.’ That was the story. I found my home at Chapman, so I want to promote that in many ways for others.

Q: Are there any specific initiatives you’re looking to implement at Chapman now, or any projects you’re looking to continue? 

A: Things that I'm hoping to continue are safe space training. We've had it in the recent past, so I'd like to bring that back, and I think there's a lot of interest in that, so safe space training for faculty and staff. 

We've had Lavender Graduation for a while, so I'd love to continue to have that. One of my visions is to find ways for us to continue to develop and make it large and meaningful as a space of both celebration and meaningful connection towards your future. 

So how do we bring in communities? One of my hopes is to draw together an LGBTQ+ specific alumni community, so that we have that for people to move off into. It would also become a really great resource for students who are presently here.

October is LGBTQ+ History Month, and we have celebrated in different ways at Chapman for a while now. And so one of the things I'd really want to do is bolster that just so that it can be our time to celebrate intentional support and education around the community, especially school.

And then, opening spaces for dialogue communities for our LGBTQ+ folks and doing that in a way that is very intentional. The beautiful thing that comes with being part of such an outstanding DEI team is I'm working with Misty Levingston, the director of Black Excellence and Achievement. We can create dialogue, community spaces and events that look at the intersection of Black identity and LGBTQIA identity. Same with Dr. Gabriela Castaneda, the assistant vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as well as the director of Hispanic and Latinx Achievement. 

So kind of really looking at ways and spaces and events that we can do to really promote that intersection as well. So being intentionally intersectional in the ways that moving forward — we're not just one thing.

Q: How has graduating from Chapman and also holding other positions on campus prepared you for this role?

A: I've got experience in research in the area of LGBTQIA, so that contributes and comes from education. So I've learned things across skills and across all of my experiences that have come to play key parts of the role that I'm currently in.

We're always learning and we are always developing, for sure. I will be continuing to grow, but bringing a lot of those experiences with me to the role that I'm at.

Q: What inspired you to take this position? 

A: I would say it starts with my story. One of the things that inspired me, as I said, I had a wonderful faculty when I was a student here at Chapman who really welcomed me to take a bold step to be myself. When I came to Chapman, I was actually in reparative therapy, which is also known as conversion therapy. 

When I came into the program, it was the unrelenting presence and support of faculty who welcomed me to be myself — pushed me in no direction really — but just welcomed me to be myself that created this space for me to be able to come out. And that totally transformed my life. I remember thinking, ‘Okay, well maybe I can see myself as good in this aspect. I can actually look at myself and say, that's a good part of you.’

So I thought, ‘Oh, I'm just gonna put this on as if it was a jacket and see how it fits, and if it doesn't fit, I'm gonna throw it off.’ It felt like the world turned upside down. And for the first time in my life, I felt like I fit in the world and I took my shoes off. I was driving, I pulled off to the side, I took my shoes off, and I actually walked on the grass barefoot of somebody's lawn because I felt like for the first time in my life, I was going to feel the grass. I had felt for so long, like I was walking on top of grass, right? Like the grass was here, but I didn't ever belong on the earth. Like I didn't belong to the world around me. I was an outsider, so when I allowed myself to see myself as good, suddenly I belonged to all these other pieces of the world.

That was life-changing, and I couldn't turn back from that point. I felt, ‘Now, I'm thriving. Now I'm becoming myself,’ so because of my story, it led me down this path to kind of explore what it meant to negotiate your identity, to understand who you are. 

And I really fell in love with Chapman. I've poured so much of my heart and soul into Chapman and I just want Chapman to be known across the U.S. And part of the thing that it's known for is being a place where all people come to thrive. They come and they thrive. And so, my love for Chapman and my story are the things that led me to really want to do this job. 

Q: If students want to reach out to you, what’s the best way to contact you? 

A: Hashinger 117 is my office, and then my email is kstock@chapman.edu. Those are the two best ways to contact me.