"Yale University Presents Highest Honor to UCLA Professor Don Nakanishi"

New Haven, CT: Yale University announced that it will present the prestigious Yale Medal to UCLA Professor Don T. Nakanishi of Los Angeles, CA on November 14, 2008 at the university.

The Yale Medal is the highest award presented by the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) and is conferred solely to recognize and honor outstanding individual service to the University.  Since its inception in 1952, the Yale Medal has been presented to only 267 individuals, all of whom not only showed extraordinary devotion to the ideals of the University, but also were conspicuous in demonstrating their support of Yale through extensive, exemplary service on behalf of Yale as a whole or one of its many schools, institutes, or programs. No more than five individuals receive the Yale Medal each year.

Professor Nakanishi, who graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Intensive Political Science in 1971, has been a tireless supporter of the Yale Admissions Office since his undergraduate career and has been a strong advocate for Yale's diversity efforts in student and faculty recruitment and academic programs.

For nearly three decades, he has chaired the Yale Alumni Schools Committee of Los Angeles County, which interviews over 1,200 applicants annually, and has written a highly praised newsletter that helps incoming Southern California freshmen and their parents make the transition to Yale.

Nakanishi has also served as an AYA delegate and an AYA Board member. Nakanishi, son Thomas, Yale Class of 2005, and wife Marsha established a prize that is awarded annually to two seniors who have contributed most to advancing ethnic relations at Yale. He also co-chaired the effort to establish the Henry Hayase Prize in American Studies, which is given yearly to the outstanding senior thesis in Asian American Studies at Yale.

Nakanishi is the Director and Professor of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the leading program of its kind in the nation. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and attended Theodore Roosevelt High School before attending Yale. As an undergraduate, he was an active student leader, and co-founded the Yale Asian American Students Association and MEChA. He also co-founded Amerasia Journal, which has become the top journal in the field of Asian American Studies. At graduation, he received the Frank M. Patterson Prize for the Outstanding Senior Thesis on American politics, and the Saybrook College Fellows Prize as the Outstanding Graduating Senior.

After graduating from Yale, Nakanishi attended Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Political Science. He has been a faculty member at UCLA for nearly 35 years, and has been a pioneering scholar in the areas of political and educational research on Asian Americans and other ethnic and racial groups.