Chika was born in Chicago and educated by the Chicago Public Schools for elementary, middle, and high school.  After graduating college at Stanford, he worked a couple years in consulting with McKinsey & Company, where he advised senior leadership at Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.  He then chose to translate the skills acquired to a problem close to heart: working full-time as a Chicago Public Schools employee to curb gun violence among Chicago high-schoolers through the “Culture of Calm” violence prevention initiative.  

After his time with the school district concluded, Chika graduated from Yale Law School and spent a second stint with the Chicago Public Schools, building the district’s first “College Persistence Toolkit.”  He is now an Economics PhD Candidate at Harvard University, using the tools of economics to explore foundational matters of justice.  He is also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a former Interim Allston Burr Resident Dean at Harvard College, where he was primarily responsible for the academic and personal progress of Harvard undergraduates.