About Mighty Catalyst
Helping leaders and organizations navigate complexity, make more intentional decisions, and translate insight into meaningful, sustained change.
Dr. Nicole Ja, MA/PhD, CPCC is the Founder and Principal of Mighty Catalyst, a consulting and coaching practice that integrates research, evaluation, and human-centered design to support both organizations and the people within them.
My Approach Sits at the Intersection of Rigorous Tools and Approaches
This allows me to understand both individuals and the environments they operate within - connecting insight to action in ways that are both rigorous and deeply practical.
Because I work across both systems and individuals, I bring a perspective that most consultants or coaches alone don’t have - allowing each area of my work to strengthen the others.
How It All Comes Together to Create Impact
While my work spans multiple areas, it is grounded in a single focus: helping people and organizations move forward with greater clarity, alignment, and impact.
With organizations, I design evaluation and learning systems that generate meaningful insight and support better decision-making
With leaders, I provide executive coaching to help navigate complexity, make high-stakes decisions, and lead with greater clarity and confidence
Through workshops and facilitation, I help teams translate insight into action
My Path to this Work
My work is rooted in a deep curiosity about how people grow, make decisions, and create change - both individually and within larger systems.
Through my academic training in developmental psychology and my professional experience working with organizations and leaders, I saw a consistent gap: insight alone doesn’t lead to change. It’s the combination of reflection, structure, and intentional action that creates meaningful progress.
That realization led me to build an approach that integrates research, coaching, and design - supporting both the systems people work within and the individuals navigating them.
Credentials & Experience
PhD & MA in Developmental Psychology, Cornell University
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), Co-Active Training Institute
Faculty, Executive Education — Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Over two decades of experience in research, evaluation, and leadership development
Training and practice in systems thinking and human-centered design
Who I Work With
I work with leaders and organizations across sectors, including:
Corporate and private sector organizations
Startups and entrepreneurial ventures
Nonprofit and mission-driven organizations
Public sector and government agencies
What connects my clients is not where they work, but a shared commitment to thoughtful leadership, intentional decision-making, and meaningful impact.
“Insight without action isn’t enough - real change requires the ability to translate understanding into intentional decisions and sustained practice.”
— Dr. Nicole Ja, Founder of Mighty Catalyst
Research + Evaluation Team
Mighty Catalyst’s research and evaluation work is supported by a collaborative team of experienced researchers, evaluators, and practitioners who - based on the needs of each project - bring deep expertise across sectors and disciplines to ensure the right expertise is brought to each engagement.
*While Mighty Catalyst’s consulting work is supported by a broader team, executive coaching engagements are led directly by Dr. Nicole Ja.
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Mandy Purington Drake, PhD
Mighty CatalystPrincipal Evaluator + Project 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Interested in joining the Mighty Catalyst Research + Evaluation team?
“I believe that when we are well and thriving, we not only feel great, but we have more to give to ourselves and to others in a more effective and sustainable way.”
— Dr. Nicole Ja, Founder of Mighty Catalyst