He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2013. Dr. Tawa's research focuses on race-relations between Black/African Americans and Asian/Asian Americans. In addition, he is interested in the use of virtual technology for the behavioral measurement of intergroup relations. For his dissertation, Dr. Tawa used the virtual world, Second Life, to examine how resource competition affected the social distances between Black and Asian participants' self-resembling avatars. Dr. Tawa is a past fellow of the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program and recipient of the Asian American Psychological Association Division of Students 2008 Student Researcher Award. He is the proud father of two daughters, Amaya and Kalia.