“In my early 20’s, while backpacking in Southeast Asia, I finally had the space and time to really open my eyes to witness the resilience and strength of the human spirit. During those travels, I had a dream where my waking life met my intuition and I saw, heard, and experienced myself as an educational leader and change maker.”

— Dr. Nicole Ja, Founder of Mighty Catalyst

Meet Dr. Nicole Ja…

Dr. Ja imagined and launched Mighty Catalyst as a result of several sparks of inspiration. One such spark was her desire to bring more innovative, integrative, multi-faceted, flexible, and human-centered approaches to catalyzing the growth and development of people, programs, organizations, and systems. She also was moved to more fully step into living her purpose more boldly and fearlessly, leveraging her training and unique toolkit to respond effectively, creatively, and compassionately to others, and to be the connector that aligns dedicated, talented, and amazing people with their passions as we collaboratively respond to calls for growth and change.

Dr. Ja was born and raised in California where she did her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley. This is where her love of storying telling, the written word, and the psychological underpinnings of humans and what drives them, came together for her as an English literature and psychology major. This was also where she was heavily involved in community outreach, youth serving organizations, and campus leadership which, along with her experiences traveling and living abroad helped her develop an appreciation for the diversity of human beings and their life journeys.

All these aspects of life came together as Dr. Ja earned her MA and PhD from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University where she specialized in developmental psychology. As she conducted research on promoting adolescent well-being and thriving through self-development and intentional self-reflection as a key drivers of change, her core perspectives on human development were formed.

It was at Cornell where Dr. Ja developed her love for the application of rigorous research and evaluation tools and approaches to promote positive change in people and the communities they live in. She gained foundational knowledge, expertise, and experience while working with Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, and the New York State Department of Health to promote parents as sex educators for youth. In addition, she helped assess the effects of racial microaggressions and positive race-related uplifts among Asian Americans, and during her time as a post doc, assessed how social connectedness supports ”lost” adolescents engagement in identity development. Her research has appeared in publications like American Psychologist, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and Health Education Research, as well as the popular media outlet, Psychology Today.

As a Faculty of Innovation and Human-Centered Design at the John’s Hopkins University Carey Business School Executive Education Program, Dr. Ja develops and leads workshops that integrate the best of developmental psychology, human-centered design, and design thinking. Her workshops have included, Designing Personal Change, Designing Professional Change, Designing Resilience, Design Thinking for Innovative Problem Solving, and Designing Wellness which have been offered as part of open-enrollment or customized courses and workshops. Her partners have included the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Wilmer Eye Institute, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s Academy for Women and Leadership and Academy for Emerging Leaders.

Inspired by the sparks, “aha moments”, and opportunities for change taking place as she leveraged her expertise in developmental psychology, self-development, identity, and motivation during one-on-one sessions with her life design workshop participants, as well as her own lived experience being able to step more fully and courageously into herself by receiving coaching, Dr. Ja has dedicated herself to the becoming a certified personal and professional coach, receiving rigorous training from industry leader, Co-Active Training Institute, to be able to offer others another gateway for growth and development.

During these years, she also worked as a consultant for a Bay Area community research consulting firm, bringing research and evaluation tools to support vulnerable community members by bolstering the organizations that serve them. Dedicated to promoting growth and development in two distinct, but related ways - human-centered design and research and evaluation consulting - organically led Dr. Ja to integrate these two approaches to help clients better meet their needs and serve others. Her partners have included the Promotores of Gilroy, California, the Opportunity Youth leaders of the Youth Liberation Movement (YLM) in San Jose, California, and the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics.

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What led me to this work?

Nicole’s life (and career) journey in pictures

A favorite family photo (I’m the kiddo in yellow)
A bit spicy at age 3
My first national junior tennis tournament at age 8 (with the obligatory 1980’s plastic visor)
With my tennis coach, Van, who, from age 6 to age 17, believed in me and helped develop me as a player. He pushed me hard, always expected me to stand and hold myself as a champion, skills and mindsets that translated to the rest of my life. He passed away in 2000, which was one of my first experiences with the passing of someone so influential in my life. I have so much gratitude for him as a mentor and coach
First trip to China at age 8 where all four of my grandparents were born and raised as children before coming to the US
Middle school experimentations in leadership and service delivering the commencement speech at graduation
My competitive tennis journey continued with the Cal Women’s Varsity Tennis Team at UC Berkeley (and the greatest physical condition I’ve ever been in), but after a year, I made the tough decision to step away from tennis to make room for other things I knew were ripe with potential
During my time at UC Berkeley, I lived abroad in Aix-en-Provence in Southern France which, in addition to my involvement in community outreach, youth serving organizations, and campus leadership, helped me develop an appreciation for the diversity of human beings and their life journeys, and imagining what my role and purpose could be in the world. Here I am with my study abroad friends, Angela and Aimee, in font of the Musee D’Orsee in Paris
Graduation day with my mom and dad, who also went to Cal (and met on the tennis court, of course). As an undergrad at UC Berkeley, my love of storying telling, the written word, and the psychological underpinnings of humans and what drives them, came together as an English literature and psychology major.
The inspiration for why I wanted to pursue graduate school came to me in a dream while backpacking in Southeast Asia. This is how I found myself living life as a grad student at Cornell University. Despite looking cold in this pic, I loved living in Ithaca including the winters, summer swims in the gorges and parties by the lake, having the time and space to explore and work on my craft.
This is one of the “words of inspiration love notes” I wrote to uplift and champion my dad as he battled cancer for the second time. Choosing to delay completing my PhD was hard, but the gift that came was being able to witness his courage, stepping fully into the moment no matter how hard things got, and using the time he had left to meet me in a sacred place of healing, peace + connection. After he passed in 2010, I stepped into the role of adult care giver for my mom who passed away 1.5 years later due to (as the Chinese say) a “broken heart”. This was the most difficult + terrible time of my life, but stepping through it deepened my self-understanding and strengthened my ability to hold space for myself and others
I had just emerged from a very difficult period of mournIng and loss, not just the loss of my parents, but the loss of the academic path of “success” that I had worked hard so hard to achieve. It was a period of self-care and of letting go + imagining from a different place what else could be possible. Just as I emerged from this period and felt clearer about what I was calling out for… BAM!… the person who would become my husband arrived in my life. Here we are on Cornell’s campus a few months after we met.
A year and a half later, our bags were packed and we were heading to New Zealand to live. I can’t say that settling into life in a new country was easy, but taking this scary leap forward led me to a life partnership and experiencing a vastly different model for living life that’s so far from what I had experienced at Cornell and in the Bay Area.
With great loss - the loss of my parents and then the loss of my husband’s father - came incredible blessings, including our visit to Machu Picchu where we let the energy of this sacred place fill our hearts and help us make space for good things to come (as it turns out, I was pregnant at the time!)
A favorite photo of me waking from one of my 2-3 hour naps I took every day while pregnant. I was given permission to rest and focus on my pregnancy by the New Zealand culture that seems to not be blinded by its own ambition
Living and working in New Zealand for three years included hiking past volcanos, camping along windy shores, living in one of the most wonderful capital cities in the world (Wellington), traveling to other parts of the world (Peru, Fiji), as well an engagement, marriage, and the birth of our twins.
After 3 years living in New Zealand, we moved to California to be more fully present and connected to the joy and intimacy of life with our family and old friends. Bay Area life, though busy and a bit stressful, continues to bring incredible diverse experiences - redwood forests, diverse foods, day trips, holidays with family, aquariums, beaches, dance parties, and, of course, tacos.
Facilitating my first design thinking workshop as a Faculty of Innovation + Human-Centered Design at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s Exec Ed Program one month before Covid hit and the world shut down.
Back in California, my kids now 8 going on 30, witnessing the most spectacular field of wild poppies

Team Members

Mighty Catalyst leverages the skills, expertise, and experience of a deep pool of amazing, talented, and passionate people. let me introduce you to a few of them…

Mandy Purington Drake, PhD

Mighty Catalyst Stakeholder Engagement + Evaluation Co-Design Lead
Director of ACT for Youth Center for Community Action, Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR) at Cornell University
Amanda Purington Drake, PhD, is the Director of the ACT for Youth Center for Community Action at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and a research collaborator with the Social Media Lab, both at Cornell University. Amanda has a passion for using research and evaluation to help communities to promote and support the health and wellbeing of youth. Her work in the Bronfenbrenner Center has focused on promoting positive youth development, investigating non-suicidal self-injury in general populations of adolescents and young adults, and evaluating the effectiveness of large-scale adolescent sexual health initiatives. She has co-developed and evaluated interventions to develop youth social media literacy and to promote parent-teen communication about sexual health. Amanda works to bridge research and evaluation with practice and policy-making to prevent youth risk-behavior and promote healthy development.
Jui Bhagwat, PhD

Mighty Catalyst Early Childhood Language + Cognition Consultant
Early Childhood and Language Learning Specialist, Faculty of the Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University
After earning her MA and PhD in Human Development from Cornell University, Dr. Bhagwat serves as a teacher, mentor, and researcher as a faculty member of the Department of Psychology at Santa Clara University. She enjoys making complex ideas accessible to everybody, using High Impact Practices to optimize learning, mentoring student research, and energetic collaborations in research, course design and curriculum development.
Dr. Bhagwat’s research expertise and interests lie in early cognitive and language development- how babies and young children learn to make sense of the world and to communicate. In an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world, I am interested in how early experiences with multiple languages and cultures shape children’s understanding of their physical and social world.
Elizabeth Mower, MS

Mighty Catalyst Technical Lead + Project Manager
Elizabeth brings over a decade of experience in research, program evaluation, and data systems design, including five years leading evaluation services for First 5 Santa Clara County. She specializes in building user-centered data systems, dashboards, and reporting tools that transform raw numbers into decision-ready insights—helping leaders, staff, and grantees monitor progress, refine strategies, and drive continuous quality improvement.
Her portfolio spans early childhood development, behavioral health, school climate, student wellness, and community needs assessments. Elizabeth has partnered with organizations including First 5 Santa Clara County, San Mateo County Human Services Agency’s Big Lift Inspiring Summers Program, Kids in Common/Resource Link Opportunity Youth Partnership, and CASA organizations across the Bay Area. Skilled in platforms like Tableau and Looker Studio, she makes data accessible and actionable so partners can achieve measurable improvements in literacy, kindergarten readiness, and child well-being.
Elizabeth holds a Master’s degree in Sociology with a focus on intersectionality, which informs her equity-centered approach to designing tools and systems that are meaningful and accessible for diverse partners.
Hui Zhao, PhD

Mighty Catalyst Senior Quantitative Data Analyst
Hui brings more than 15 years of experience in program evaluation, educational research, and data analysis to the Mighty Catalyst team. She is an expert in data management, survey design, and advanced quantitative methods—including longitudinal and multilevel modeling—and is known for translating complex data into clear, actionable insights for policymakers, funders, and community partners.
She has directed data management and analysis for large-scale public health, early childhood, and youth-serving initiatives, including evaluations for First 5 Santa Clara, First 5 Sonoma, and county probation departments. At Mighty Catalyst, Hui leads data cleaning, merging, and preparation for analysis and reporting, ensuring accuracy and consistency across grantees and initiatives. She also conducts quantitative analyses and supports dashboard development—turning raw data into meaningful visuals that drive decision-making and continuous quality improvement.
Hui holds a PhD in Educational Research and is committed to equity-centered evaluation practices that ensure data not only demonstrates program impact but also highlights opportunities to close gaps and improve outcomes for children and families.
Sara Strickhouser, PhD

Senior Quantitative Research Consultant
Sara brings more than 15 years of expertise in quantitative research, applied statistics, and program evaluation to her role as Head of Quantitative Research at Mighty Catalyst. She leads the development of rigorous data strategies for countywide evaluation frameworks, ensuring that measures, systems, and analyses capture outcomes at the program, initiative, and system levels. Sara specializes in transforming complex data into actionable insights that are clear, decision-ready, and accessible to agency leadership, funders, and community stakeholders.
She has partnered with over 50 organizations nationwide—including First 5 Alameda, Kaiser Permanente, and multiple county agencies—to conduct longitudinal data analyses, design performance measurement frameworks, and build dashboards that translate findings into compelling stories. Her work is rooted in transparency, replicability, and equity-centered methodology, ensuring that results meet scientific standards and reflect the lived realities of children, families, and providers.
In addition to her applied research, Sara has taught statistics and research methods for six years, equipping practitioners with the skills to understand and use data effectively. She leverages this expertise to build local analytic capacity through technical assistance, grantee and staff training, and the co-creation of user-friendly tools and systems.
Nicole Henderson, MA

Mighty Catalyst Education & Community Engagement Specialist
With over a decade of experience in inclusive education and equity-centered professional learning, Ms. Henderson has partnered with Stanford University and Santa Clara Unified School District to co-lead a multi-year research-practice partnership advancing inclusive instruction, and with San Francisco Unified School District to design culturally responsive teacher professional development. Her work consistently centers diverse student voices and builds educator capacity to improve outcomes.