Leakhena NOU

Leakhena Nou, Ph.D., is a medical sociologist and professor at Cal State Long Beach whose work centers on harmful traumatic stress within Cambodian communities affected by the Khmer Rouge.

Her research focuses on social stress, health disparities, political sociology, and human rights, highlighting how cultural and demographic factors impact health and illness. As executive director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, she advanced the participation of genocide survivors in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a hybrid international criminal court.

Nou’s work is featured in the documentary Daze of Justice and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Genocide Prevention Case Study on Cambodia. She authored California Senate Bill 369, which enhances K–12 education on Cambodian history and genocide. She is currently writing two books on healing justice from both the survivor's and perpetrator's perspectives.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Cal State Fullerton in 1991; a Master of Social Work from Columbia University in 1993; a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in 1997; and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in 2002.