Chapin Hall

Reiko Kakuyama-Villaber is a Researcher at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. She has a wide range of experience with field research activities in school districts and early learning programs, data management, and analysis to enrich interventions that promote mental health and social-emotional well-being of youth, staff and caregivers. Since joining Chapin Hall in 2016, Kakuyama-Villaber’s research has focused on implementation and evaluation of child welfare interventions, continuous quality improvement for child welfare workers, and social-emotional learning integration in education. In addition to the school-based mindfulness/SEL interventions and early childhood mental health consultation initiatives, she conducts systematic/rapid reviews of evidence, including coding and extracting data from identified studies and synthesizing results, to help inform promising practices in the child welfare system in Illinois.

Prior to coming to Chapin Hall, Kakuyama-Villaber worked for Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University Chicago, evaluating an arts-infused literacy program in public schools. She also monitored School for Learning at DePaul University to evaluate outcomes and implementation of its undergraduate and graduate programs. Additionally, she worked at Heartland Human Care Services’ refugee resettlement department, where she led an implementation of assessment tools for developing state-funded literacy and vocational programs for adult learners.

Kakuyama-Villaber received her Master of Education in Research Methodology and Master of Arts in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, specializing in Comparative Education, from Loyola University Chicago. She is certified in K-3 CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) and CHILD (Climate of Healthy Interactions for Learning & Development), for observing and coding classroom climate and interactions.