Dr. OiYan Poon

Dr. OiYan Poon is an educator, author, speaker, and race and education scholar. She is a co-director of the College Admissions Futures Co-Lab, through which she is serving as a consultant to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s office on higher education policy. Dr. Poon’s research has focused on the racial politics of Asian Americans, education access, affirmative action, and admissions systems and practices. She is the author of Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family, which explores how Asian Americans are shaping the future of race relations through debates over education policies like affirmative action, using personal narratives and interviews of Asian Americans across the country. Originally from Massachusetts, OiYan now resides in Chicago, where her daughter is an elementary student at their neighborhood Chicago Public School.