Dr. OiYan Poon is an educator, author, and race scholar. An Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership and Faculty Affiliate of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Poon is serving as a consultant on higher education equity to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s office.

 

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 narrative and interviews of Asian Americans across the country. Her work has appeared widely in international media outlets including NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the South China Morning Post. 

 

Dr. Poon was born and raised in Massachusetts by working-class immigrants from Hong Kong. She spent a lot of time growing up in Boston Chinatown with her grandparents who were among the first tenants in South Cove Manor—an affordable senior housing building designed for Asian immigrants and refugees—which opened in 1985 after decades of Asian American community-based advocacy. She has been proud Chicago resident since 2012 and is now mom to an elementary school student in a Chicago public school, where she is a parent representative on the Local School Council. Dr. Poon joined the CMAA board, motivated by a desire to invest in the mutual aid and uplift of working-class Asian American immigrant and refugee communities in Chicago.