President: Alissa Paris

Alissa Paris is a mother, performing and teaching artist, culture builder, and courageous space maker based in Minneapolis. She has served as Co-Founder and Executive Director of MidWest Mosaic since 2014, cultivating multigenerational spaces rooted in creativity, dialogue, and collective care, where mixed-race people and transracial adoptees are witnessed in their full complexity and build toward antiracist futures. With over 20 years as a youth worker and performing artist, her practice uplifts young people as cultural workers and changemakers. Her engagement with mixed race scholarship began in 2005 after encountering the work of Maria P. P. Root, a moment that, alongside Black feminist thought, continues to undergird her social justice praxis. A past attendee of the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association conference since 2018, Alissa now serves as Board President, committed to expanding the reach of the field, honoring its founding vision, and carrying forward a legacy grounded in critical inquiry, connection, and collective liberation. She is an avid audiobook listener and puzzler, often finding joy in the slow unfolding of both stories and scattered pieces coming together.

Vice President: Deja Goodwin

Deja Goodwin is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at UCLA, preparing to graduate in June 2026. Her research interests include Race & Ethnicity, Identities, and Families. Her dissertation investigates how multiracial people form their racial identities within families, focusing on the resources that support identity development. Inspired by her own lived experience with her multiracial identity—a combination of Black, white, and Mexican—Deja entered graduate school seeking to understand how multiracial people understand their racial identities in different contexts. She discovered CMRSA in 2024 and joined the Executive Board that same year. After serving as the 2026 Conference Logistics Chair, she is eager to continue serving and connecting with the CMRSA community as Vice President.

Secretary: Dr. Kevin Wong 黃浩文博士

Dr. Kevin Wong 黃浩文博士 is an Associate Professor and Chair of the MA in TESOL program at Pepperdine University. He received his Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning at New York University, specializing in literacy education for multilingual learners. Kevin’s research is informed by his biracial, trilingual upbringing in Hong Kong where he was a public elementary/primary school teacher. Now at Pepperdine, he directs the Multilingual, Multiracial, Multicultural Education Research Group, examining raciolinguistic ideologies and identity among students (with a particular interest in Multiracial individuals); language learning in ESL/EFL, dual language immersion, and digital contexts; and humanizing pedagogies and methodologies in applied linguistics research.

Corrine Collins

Corrine Collins is an assistant professor of English at the University of Southern California. She decided to run for the board because she wanted to be more involved with CMRSA and is looking forward to supporting the association. Corrine is based in Los Angeles and loves to cook and bake with local produce.

Dakota Duffy

Dakota Duffy is based in Los Angeles, supporting diversity efforts in the UCLA School of Engineering. In addition to serving on the CMRSA Board, he’s also the President of the Mixed Alumni Association at UCLA, a place for mixed race UCLA alums to find community. While a student at UCLA, Dakota served as Lead Director for the Mixed Student Union at UCLA for several years. This included organizing weekly meetings and the annual Mixed Heritage Conference. In his free time, he enjoys reading, TTRPGs, basketball, and watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean.Dakota Duffy is based in Los Angeles, supporting diversity efforts in the UCLA School of Engineering. In addition to serving on the CMRSA Board, he’s also the President of the Mixed Alumni Association at UCLA, a place for mixed race UCLA alums to find community. While a student at UCLA, Dakota served as Lead Director for the Mixed Student Union at UCLA for several years. This included organizing weekly meetings and the annual Mixed Heritage Conference. In his free time, he enjoys reading, TTRPGs, basketball, and watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean.

Alexander Zapata Torres

Alexander Zapata Torres (They/Them) is a PhD Student in Sociology at Brandeis University. Their research focuses on the intersection of Critical Mixed Race Studies, Science & Technology Studies and Social Movements. Coming from Vietnamese, Khmer, Cuban and Mexican background, their identity informs their work in unveiling what it means to be a non-white mixed person especially through modern technologies such as Genetic Ancestry Testing (GAT) and Engagement-Based Ranking Algorithms. They are beyond excited to connect and unite the graduate students towards the new futures envisioned by the field.

Viveka Ichikawa

Viveka Ichikawa (she/her), MSW, RSW, PhD (c), is an incoming Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at Toronto Metropolitan University. Based in Tkaronto (Toronto), her work is shaped by transnational mixed-heritage experiences across Japan, Brazil, and Canada. Viveka is a researcher, psychotherapist, and educator actively engaged in Critical Mixed Race Studies through research, teaching, and therapy practice with mixed-heritage individuals, couples, and families. She believes diversity is the norm and accessibility is a right, and is passionate about strengthening global connections and amplifying voices from all parts of the world. She is excited to help foster international collaboration and community through her role on the board. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys swimming, traveling, spending time with her family (including her fluffy dog-son!). She is also an artist at heart.

Community Arts Representative: Bianca MacPherson

Bianca MacPherson is a ceramic artist and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She is currently a part-time lecturer at California State University, Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona, as well as a resident artist at Laguna Clay Company. She will serve as a Community Art Representative for the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA) through 2028. Her practice is rooted in connection, using clay, archival research, and storytelling to explore memory, history, identity, and shared experience. She is passionate about bringing people together through art and fellowship, creating spaces that support learning, healing, and growth. Through workshops, community engagement, and teaching, she aims to make art accessible and meaningful, fostering environments where creativity can be a tool for empowerment and collective care.

Damian Ashton

Damian Ashton is a Service Designer, Strategist, and Educator with a background in communications. Having studied Critical Ethnography and Political Economy for undergrad and Design for Social Innovation for his Masters, he has led work across business, technology, and civic sectors for over 15 years. In addition to service design and communications, Damian serves as a Commissioner with the NYC Mayor’s Office on Gender Equity, teaches part-time at Parsons’ Strategic Design and Management program, co-leades the NYC Behavior Science Chapter and is a dedicated mentor with New Museum’s NEW INCprogram. He is also a founding member of Dub-Stuy, a Brooklyn-based record label and sound system. His work centers on fostering connection, equity, and agency through collaborative design.

Dr. Shawna M. Gann

Dr. Shawna M. Gann is a business psychologist and culture strategist based in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Her work as a scholar, consultant, podcaster, and author of the forthcoming book Mixed Signals explores how identity shapes belonging, which is exactly why CMRSA feels like home. After a year as a member, she’s running for the board because she believes there are many more people out there who would benefit from this community, and she’s looking forward to helping them find their way in. Off the clock, she’s into music, dance, karaoke, and hanging out with her three whippets: Elsy, Fable, and Nova.

Maeve Lucas

Maeve Lucas is a transracial adoptee from China who discovered CMRSA through her involvement with Mixed@Michigan at the University of Michigan. After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she now works as a Clinical Research Coordinator. Her experience at the 2026 UCLA Conference inspired her to deepen her involvement with CMRSA in a creative capacity, combining her longtime interests in graphic design and social media management. Outside of work, she enjoys running, yoga and pilates, and spending time exploring the beaches and mountains of Southern California.

Past Leadership:

Former President: Dr. Chandra D.L. Waring

Chandra D. L. Waring (she/her) is a mixed (Black/white) mama scholar and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies and her research explores how institutions (i.e., family), inequality (i.e., monoracism), and privilege (i.e., white privilege by proxy) shape multiracial America. A conceptual sociologist and autoethnographer, Dr. Waring’s research has been published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Sociology Compass, Women, Gender, and Families of Color, and the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, among other journals. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of Sociology and Race & Ethnic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she was a faculty advisor for mXd, a multiracial organization.

Advisory Board: