Kimberly Schonert-Reichl

Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl began her professional career first as a middle school teacher and then as a secondary school teacher at an alternate school for “at risk” adolescents. She then went on and received her M.A. from the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Before arriving at UBC, Dr. Schonert-Reichl served as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University Medical School, Dept. of Psychiatry.

For over 20 years Dr. Schonert-Reichl has been conducting research in the area of the child and adolescent social-emotional development with an emphasis on discerning the developmental processes/mechanisms associated with positive development across childhood and adolescence, especially in relation to school settings.

Current projects include: a longitudinal evaluation of a universal social-emotional competence preventive intervention -- the "Roots of Empathy"; a collaborative evaluation (with Westcoast Childcare Resources in Vancouver) evaluating the "Safe Spaces” bullying prevention program for preschool-aged children; a study examining associations between how school-aged children spend their out of school time and their social, emotional, and academic adjustment (in collaboration with United Way of the Lower Mainland); and a study examining the effectiveness of the "Mindfulness Education" program in fostering children's optimism and resiliency.

Dr. Schonert-Reichl has over 150 papers presented at scholarly national and international conferences, as well as over 40 publications in scholarly journals and books. In the past few years, she has also given over 60 presentations on the topic of the relation of social emotional development to school adjustment to nonacademic audiences, including parent groups and educators.

For the past several years, Dr. Schonert-Reichl has worked in collaboration with educators across British Columbia in the area of social and emotional learning and, in 2004 she was awarded the Vancouver School Board Recognition Award in acknowledgment of her support for district initiatives regarding social responsibility and social and emotional learning.

Dr. Schonert-Reichl is committed to translating empirical research to practice. She is a frequent contributor to “Today’s Parent” -- Canada's parenting magazine and in 2001 she appeared biweekly on Vancouver's CTV 5:00 pm News program with Mi-Jung Lee as a "parenting expert" discussing topics such as sibling rivalry, raising caring children, adolescent friendships, the importance of extracurricular activities on child development, quality child care, and caring classrooms.