Dina Gail Okamoto received an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of California-San Diego in 1992. She earned a both a graduate degree and PhD in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 1995 and 2001, with minors in Economics and Women's Studies. Before coming to Indiana University in 2013, Okamoto served as Assistant Professor, Sociology, at University of California-Davis (2001-2013), and was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, New York from 2004-05. She also served as Visiting Fellow at Stanford at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences from 2011-12. Along with her current titled professorship, she was named, Best of Social Sciences Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University in 2017.