Email: [email protected]

My EIU Story

In Fall 2006, I started my freshman year at Eastern Illinois University. 

After losing my dad at 16, I was giving up on my dream of going to college. While scrambling to finish high school in Tokyo, Japan, I happened to become friends with American college students who were taking time off to visit various locations for their mission work. They encouraged me to look into financial aid that U.S. universities might offer and helped me study English. EIU offered me full scholarship, and I was able to attend college. 

To continue receiving the scholarship, I studied hard. During my freshman year, I recorded all lectures and listened to them 3 to 5 times to finish taking notes. I was at the library so much that I became acquainted with several librarians, and I eventually started working at the Booth Library. I also actively participated in student organizations, events on campus, and music. I was in the Concert Choir, and I was a part of Asian American Association as well as Sigma Alpha Iota. At the end of my sophomore year, while taking the Research Method course, the professor called me over asking if I would be interested in doing more research. I had no idea what opportunities were there or how to go about them. In fact, as a first-generation student, I had no idea that graduate school even existed. Following the professor's recommendation, I reached out to several psychology faculty and joined a lab in the following year. This was how my career changed. I wrote a thesis on parent-child relationship and its association with suicidal ideation and behaviors, and I was sent to present it at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go to graduate school so that I could continue exploring my interests.

Among three programs in clinical psychology that I was accepted into, EIU, again, offered me the best funding. I stayed at EIU for 2 more years working on my master's degree. The program provided me with a lot of opportunities to apply the clinical skills beyond classroom learning. 

My first full-time job was at Heritage Behavioral Health Center in Decatur, Illinois. After moving back to Japan, I had several unique opportunities to continue exploring my interests, and I eventually pursued a doctoral degree in school psychology.

I couldnot have done any of this without EIU. I received not only financial assistance to make my dream come true, but also the community full of people who truly cared about me and pushed me to achieve higher. After many years, I am friends with many people on campus, and I sincerely feel lucky to be able to teach at EIU to hopefully bring the same impact on my students. 

Behavior & Education Equity and Support (BEES) Lab

Research Interests:

• Social justice in schools and improving school/classroom climate
• Development of measurement and tools for school consultations
• Diversity and inclusion in training programs for school psychologists and related professions
• Suicide prevention and assessment of self-harm and other risky behaviors

Current Research Projects:

• Development of the Behavior Intervention Self-Efficacy (BISE) scale to measure school staff's preparedness for when challenging behaviors occurs in classrooms
• Challenges and support among first-generation graduate students in school psychology programs
• Challenges and support among students and faculty of color in school psychology graduate programs

Service Interests:

• Dispersing statistical data on first-generation students in psychology
• Enumerating resources helpful for first-generation students in school psychology graduate programs
• Application of research products in school consultation and professional training

Frequently Taught Courses

PSY3515 Child Psychology

PSY6050 Behavior Therapy with Children and Adolescents

PSY6660 Consultation and Program Evaluation

American Psychological Association

National Association of School Psychologists

Association of Japanese Clinical Psychologists

Japanese Association of Educational Psychology