Leong, Frederick T. L. (1957-)

Frederick T. L. Leong is a first-generation Asian American of Chinese descent, who was born and educated in Malaysia. He came to the United States in 1975 on an international student scholarship to study for a B.A. in psychology at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1979 with high honors in psychology. His undergraduate honors thesis, “Males' Responses to Female Competence,” was published in Sex Roles in 1983. He was also the founder and first president of the International Student Club at Bates College. After graduating from Bates, he spent some time working as a psychiatric aid at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut.

Leong went to the University of Maryland, where he completed graduate studies with a double specialty in counseling and industrial/organizational psychology in 1988. His dissertation was titled “Cross-Cultural Epidemiology of Psychological Disorders: A Comparison of Asian-Americans and White Clients in Hawaii's Mental Health System.” During his graduate studies he was also selected as a Minority Fellow of the Minority Fellowship Program, American Psychological Association, from 1984 to 1986. As part of the doctoral program, he completed a 2-year internship at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he focused on psychodynamic psychotherapy. Leong's academic appointments include the following: (a) instructor and then assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Southern Illinois University; (b) associate professor, [Page 1201]full professor, and director of training in the Department of Psychology at Ohio State University; (c) full professor and director of the counseling psychology program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tennessee; and (d) full professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University, where he was hired to lead the Multicultural Initiative and is serving as director of the Center for Multicultural Psychology Research.

Leong has authored or coauthored more than 110 articles and 60 book chapters in psychology. He has coedited 10 books, including The Psychology Research Handbook: A Guide for Graduate Students and Research Assistants (1996; second edition 2005, Sage), Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2003, Sage), Handbook of Asian American Psychology (1999; second edition 2006, Sage), and Suicide Among Racial and Ethnic Groups: Theory, Research, and Practice (in press, Routledge). He has delivered over 100 presentations at professional meetings and has been invited to lecture, present, or be part of an expert panel at more than 50 events. Leong's other professional contributions and roles include serving on the editorial boards of numerous psychology journals (e.g., Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice & Training; Journal of Counseling Psychology; Journal of Career Assessment; Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology; Journal of Career Development; Asian Journal of Social Psychology; Asian American & Pacific Islander Journal of Health; The Counseling Psychologist; and Psychological Assessment) and being guest editor of numerous special issues of journals on topics that have focused on ethnic, racial, minority, or international issues (e.g., Career Development Quarterly, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice & Training, and Death Studies). Other editorial positions have included the following: (a) associate editor for International and Cross-Cultural entries in Alan Kazdin's Encyclopedia of Psychology, (ii) counseling section editor for Charles Spielberger's Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology, and (c) editor for a book series focused on racial and ethnic minority psychology.

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