Kristina Padilla is world-renowned as a national speaker and educator, advocating the principle of “living out loud.” They foster safer environments nationwide by conducting 2S/LGBTQIA+ educational talks and training sessions globally. They are a motivational speaker and author of Kristina with a K: A Rainbow Person’s Journey from Addiction to Recovery, an explosive expose into the lives of LGBTQ people experiencing addiction. Kristina is a leader with CCAPP, where they serve as the organization's Vice President of Education and Strategic Development.
Mx. Padilla led California’s innovative criminal justice program, serving as the Offender Mentor Certification Program Director for three years. There, they managed 12 in-prison programs for training counselors. For the duration of the contract, they worked closely with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in California prisons, bringing innovation and growth to the state’s in-custody treatment programming.
Mx. Padilla sat on SAMHSA’s Technical Expert Panel on Peer Support certification and helped SAMHSA develop National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification. They also Facilitated the First SAMHSA LGBTQIA2+ Office of Recovery Meeting at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco in May 2024.
Mx. Padilla was also the previous Program Director/Adjunct Faculty of the Peer Support Training and Placement Program, which trained peers in Recovery/mental health to become certified and how to work with other peers in recovery, such as self-direction, advocacy, ethics, person-centered approach, personalization, empowerment, strength base, goal setting, respect, cultural sensitivity, and competency, responsibility, hope and at the very core of the program.
Mx. Padilla has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice Administration and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, emphasizing Marriage and Family Therapy. Mx.Padilla is a Ph. D student in Psychology and Mx. Padilla and a Licensed Advanced Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor (LAADC) and an International Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor (ICAADC). They are also a Certified Gang Specialists of the National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC) and a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist Candidate (C-SAT).
Mx. Padilla is on the Board of Directors as the Vice president of the National Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and their Allies (NALGAP). Mx. Padilla is the Chief Academic Officer for the CCAPP Academy at CCAPP and is a past Board member of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Sacramento chapter.
In their spare time (lol), Mx. Padilla owns two businesses, Rainbow Global Collective and Native American 2-spirit Sacred Circle. Both businesses provide consulting and training worldwide and have a podcast inviting monthly guests to discuss topics such as Recovery, Addiction, LGBTQIA2+, Advocacy, Allyship, peer support, Harm reduction, and therapy on all levels.
In closing, Mx. Padilla is a parent to a beautiful 8-year-old girl named Karisma. They are also part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ (Rainbow) Community and identify as indigenous, Western Apache, Cherokee, Aztec, 2Spirit-Transgender, Gender-Fluid, non-binary, same-gender loving, biologically born Women. Kristina’s pronouns are They/Them and go by the prefix Mx. Padilla.