Jared Izumi, a new assistant professor in the School Psychology program at the University of Iowa College of Education, wants to empower school psychologists with knowledge and tools and conduct research on early interventions for students. 

Izumi received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011 before receiving an education specialist degree in school psychology from Chapman University in 2016. In 2020, Izumi earned a doctorate in school psychology from the University of Missouri, Columbia. 

Before coming to Iowa, Izumi also worked as a school psychologist at the North Kansas City School District from 2019 to 2021. 

Izumi decided early in his graduate studies he wanted to teach school psychologists and address the significant shortage of school psychologists in Iowa and across the nation. 

He is proud to have that opportunity at Iowa in addition to the opportunity to conduct research in the field of school psychology. Izumi’s research focuses on social-emotional and behavioral risk in schools.  

“The goal of my research is to identify and provide early interventions for students to prevent future development of mental and behavioral health problems,” Izumi said. 

Entering his new position, Izumi is most excited by the collaboration opportunities within and between colleges at Iowa. He is particularly interested in collaborating with the new Scanlan Center for School Mental Health and the College of Engineering on virtual reality and machine learning projects. 

During the fall 2021 semester, Izumi is teaching a course titled Academic Interventions. This course focuses on interventions used by school and support system personnel to address academic skill deficits among children and adolescents. The course also concentrates on instructional design and delivery problems associated with deficits.