Okamoto is the Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Professor at Indiana University and Director of the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society (CRRES). She received her PhD in sociology from the University of Arizona and was Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis until 2013, when she moved to Indiana University. Her research focuses on the intersection of race, ethnicity, immigration and social movements.

Okamoto’s current projects investigate the civic and political incorporation of immigrants, the emergence of new panethnic categories, and how community-based organizations deal with increasing ethnic, racial, and language diversity. She is author of Redefining Race: Asian American Panethnicity and Shifting Ethnic Boundaries (Russell Sage Foundation, 2014) and is currently completing a book on how increasing ethnoracial diversity in the U.S. shapes intergroup perceptions and attitudes in the 21st century.