Research and Evaluation Consulting

At Mighty Catalyst, our research and evaluation services are built on human-centered design and an iterative, community-driven approach.

We engage diverse stakeholders, leveraging multiple perspectives and data sources to refine our process and deliver actionable insights.

By creating evaluation frameworks and engagement strategies that prioritize the needs of those we’re designing for, we empower leaders and stakeholders to turn insights into meaningful, measurable change, driving lasting impact.

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Services

Formative + Summative Evaluation

  • From refining ongoing strategies to measuring the impact of completed projects, our team leverages cutting-edge research methodologies and data analysis techniques to help generate actionable insights to enhance program effectiveness and drive meaningful outcomes. Whether you're looking to optimize performance, demonstrate accountability, or inform future decision-making, our holistic approach ensures that your evaluation efforts are rigorous, insightful, and aligned with your organizational goals. Partner with us to elevate your organization's impact and achieve sustainable success.

  • We leaped into action to map and measure the impact of two of San Mateo County’s Human Services Agency’s major initiatives - the Foster Youth Employment and Educational Services Programs, as well as their Child and Family Resource Centers that embed clinicians within San Mateo County’s most vulnerable neighborhood schools. Our evaluation efforts engaged diverse stakeholders across the system to uncover strengths such as the power of informal youth mentors, as well as the refinement of ongoing strategies and opportunities for leveraging capacity, coordination across the system, and the need for using data in real-time to inform decision making. Our recommendations and reporting served as a road-map for implementation in the following years.

Developmental Evaluation

  • We offer dynamic support for organizations navigating complex challenges and pursuing innovative solutions. With a focus on continuous learning and adaptation, our team of experienced research and evaluation experts provides real-time feedback and insights to propel your initiatives forward. Through ongoing assessment and flexible strategies, we help you harness uncertainty as an opportunity for growth, fostering resilience and innovation. Partner with us to embrace change, drive progress, and achieve meaningful impact.

  • We’re passionate about bolstering and helping to tell the story of our client’s inspiring and powerful programs. And we’re living our passion as we partner with the Collaborative Ocean Research Experience (CORE) network of academic professors, high school teachers, and high school youth to foster young people as scientific researchers in the field of ocean acoustics. Our use of rigorous research and evaluation tools and human-centered design provide engaging hands-on methods for stakeholders to not only be kept at the heart of the evaluation process, but to develop + co-lead the evaluation itself.

Rapid-Cycle Evaluation

  • Rapid-cycle evaluation employs a thorough, scientific method to deliver decision-makers timely and practical evidence on the effectiveness of operational changes in enhancing program outcomes.

  • We engaged in rapid-cycle evaluation to enable quick testing and actionable insights for Resource Link, a network of reintegration schools and CBOs serving Santa Clara County's Opportunity Youth. We engaged youth + other key stakeholders as co-evaluators and developers in on-line tool development, quickly assessing the needs of youth + using data in real time to inform outreach + inform next steps to keep youth connected to school + other necessary supports

Human-Centered Design

  • Ignite creativity and innovation within your organization using human-centered design and design thinking tools and approaches. We'll help customize hands-on opportunities for engagement with teams, leaders, community stakeholders, and those we’re designing for to draw upon a rich and diverse set of perspectives to identify multiple paths forward and drive meaningful change.

  • A team of faculty and researchers from the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University was 1 of 11 academic institutions awarded the prestigious Dana Centers for Neuroscience + Society planning grant, the first of a 2-part grant process. Enter Mighty Catalyst’s role in developing and implementing a co-design in-person workshop for neuroscientists, bioethicists, and community advocates to reimagine pathways, programs, and practices for leveraging public engagement to “make neuroscience more socially relevant”.

    Stakeholders engaged in design thinking activities about core values and how and why they do their work. They engaged in meaningful conversations within and across stakeholder groups to bridge the gap in knowing and understanding. They got their hands dirty with pen, post-its, wire, glue, blocks, and anything they could get their hands on to build prototypes for a future JHU Dana Center.

Needs Assessments

  • We utilize a comprehensive approach to gather data, analyze trends, and identify need and opportunities for change. Whether you're a non-profit organization, government agency, or grassroots initiative, our service provides invaluable insights to guide strategic decision-making and resource allocation. By partnering with us, you’re investing in a roadmap for positive change and sustainable development. Let's work together to transform your community's needs into actionable solutions.

  • We engaged hundreds of stakeholders across Ventura County - youth, parents, public health nurses, educators, behavioral health, psychiatrists and medical innovators, probation officers, members of the Board of Supervisors, and others across the system of care - to assess the needs of the most vulnerable young people and their families across the County, to re-align programs and services to best meet those needs, and to recommend ways to drive impact as realized through improved developmental outcomes.

    Our use of innovative tools and out-of-the-box thinking provided opportunities for moving a system from stuck and entrenched to “blue sky thinking”, imagining new possibilities, and ways of envisioning a path forward.

Participatory Co-Design

  • Through participatory co-design, we work alongside stakeholders, including leaders, staff, teachers, families, and youth to develop logic models, shared indicators, and evaluation plans that reflect community priorities and are practical for real-world use.

  •  Dr. Ja, Dr. Purington Drake, and Ms. Mower led the formative, process, and outcome evaluation of CORE, a youth development initiative designed to provide Indigenous Native Alaskan high school students in Sitka, Alaska, with meaningful research experiences in ocean acoustics. They trained youth as evaluators, co-developed a logic model with youth, researchers, and high school teachers, developed and implemented a multi-stakeholder survey to identify key learnings, successes, challenges, and opportunities for program growth, and developed an evaluation framework and roadmap for implementation.

Data System Development

  • We partner with our clients, community partners, and other stakeholders to develop data systems that help program and organizational leaders have access to data that helps them make evidence-based decisions efficiently and effectively.

  • We were tasked with helping to build an integrated cohesive network of school and community supports to help Santa Clara County's Opportunity Youth stay connected and on track towards their educational and career goals. Based on input from school staff that the needs of youth change quickly, we developed an integrated data system tool, so that as soon as students completed their Success Assessment Survey in Google Forms, results could be used by school staff and CBOs to conduct their outreach

Integrated Solutions

  • We utilize a comprehensive approach to gather data, analyze trends, and identify need and opportunities for change. Whether you're a non-profit organization, government agency, or grassroots initiative, our service provides invaluable insights to guide strategic decision-making and resource allocation. By partnering with us, you’re investing in a roadmap for positive change and sustainable development. Let's work together to transform your community's needs into actionable solutions.

  • Did we mention that in addition to developing and implementing an in-person design thinking workshop for diverse stakeholders to imagine a Johns Hopkins University Dana Center of Neuroscience and Bioethics, we also led the co-development and implementation of a process evaluation? We collaborated with JHU faculty to design an evaluation that would tell the story of the stakeholder experience, and identify key learnings and workshop outcomes that spoke to the key characteristics of public engagement. Furthermore, our evaluation insights were woven into the Phase 2 grant process to make the case for bringing millions of dollars and a Dana Center to Johns Hopkins University

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Evaluation Capacity Building

  • We believe in not just responding to calls for evaluation deliverables but for an intentional investment in capacity-building—ensuring that leaders, staff, grantees, and partners foster enduring skills to evaluate, monitor, and improve programs.

    Thus, Mighty Catalyst embeds capacity-building activities throughout our work. Because when stakeholders gain confidence in using data, evaluation becomes a driver of equity, learning, and systems change rather than just a series of technical steps.

  • Dr. Ja, Dr. Purington Drake, Ms. Mower and others on our team have brought evaluation capacity building to partners including First 5 Santa Clara, initiatives and community partners funded by the NY State Department of Health, and countless others.

    For example, Dr. Ja brought these same approaches to public sector leaders, including Promotore Community Health Leaders in East Gilroy—one of Santa Clara County’s most historically marginalized neighborhoods—where she facilitated bilingual leadership development workshops in human-centered design, life design (finding & aligning your purpose), research methods, and design thinking co-development logic model sessions to strengthen the capacity of community leaders addressing violence prevention, housing insecurity, and family well-being.

“Nicole is not only one of the smartest people I know, but she is absolutely one of the kindest, most humble leaders I have ever met. She has diligently worked behind the scenes for many years, providing guidance, support, and strategic partnership in her role as our evaluator.”

— Program Manager, County of Santa Clara’s Chief Executive Office

Focus of Our Work

  • Youth + Transitional Age Youth

    We’re youth experts and passionate about bringing our knowledge, expertise, and diverse toolkit to support youth-serving programs, agencies, and organizations. What’s not to love about helping to understand, strategize, and deliver supports and opportunities to help young people leverage their unique strengths, talents, and interests towards discovering and unlocking their potential?

  • Justice Involved Young People

    Using rigorous methods to deeply understand the needs of youth and those dedicated to supporting them, identifying strengths, opportunities, and untapped resources to re-imagine a pathway forward for promoting positive outcomes in youth and their families

  • Human Services

    Working empathically across all aspects of a comprehensive system - with individuals, families, mentors, community partners, social workers, and organizational and county leaders to build the capacity of young people and their caregivers to boost educational and career opportunities that move them towards self-sufficiency

  • Mental Health

    We elevate mental health programs, services, + systems, build the capacity of professionals, and promote outcomes through our consulting, education, and coaching. From implementing human-centered design to fostering life design principles, we are passionate about leveraging our toolkit to optimize care and support for individuals and communities

  • Families with Children Ages 0-5

    We are child and youth development experts dedicated to bolstering systems of care, services, programs, and professionals that are dedicated to nurturing healthy development and well-being for children and families. We draw upon our diverse toolkit to craft and customize a an approach that meets our clients wherever they are, and from there we design a path forward.

  • Public Health

    By applying human-centered design, life design principles, and rigorous research and evaluation techniques, we empower public health systems, programs, and professionals to create effective and sustainable solutions for community well-being

  • Resident Leaders

    We build the capacity of resident leaders, such as Promotores, to consider the different perspectives of those they serve, systematically approach the design, implementattion, and evaluation of their programs and services, so they can turn the dial up on the positive change they are dedicated to create within their own communities

  • Foster Youth, Parents + Adult Caregivers

    We leverage our depth of knowledge, expertise, and experience to build the capacity of stakeholders dedicated to the well-being of youth, parents, and adult caregivers within the foster care system. We work with empathy, keeping youth + their families at the heart of the work. We are creative + innovative, while applying rigorous research + evaluation methods to help boost your impact and promote outcomes

  • Schools

    From elementary to high school, we leverage our expertise and experience in child and youth development, human-centered design, research, evaluation, and coaching to build the capacity of schools, staff, and young people to promote positive outcomes and more intentionally create, shape, + sustain their future.

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“Nicole does this work with her whole heart. She makes space for people to feel heard and understood while turning ideas into action.”

— Program Manager + Coach, Youth Liberation Movement

What People Are Saying

“Our team is more informed, more empowered, and better positioned to regularly include those we serve in our evaluation practices and program design efforts. There is no doubt that this culture shift is in large part due to Nicole’s patience, perseverance, and leadership.”

— Program Manager, County of Santa Clara’s Chief Executive Office

“Nicole is a gifted facilitator, a remarkably talented, humble evaluator who can seemingly connect with individuals from all walks of life. She is incredibly skilled at implementing human-centered design thinking within a criminal justice setting – no easy feat given both our resource constraints and our self-imposed “in-the-box thinking.” For over five years, Nicole has led the County of Santa Clara’s Probation Department’s Neighborhood Safety/Services Unit (NSU) to deepen our understanding of how to design tools that measure impact. She has consistently challenged us to include those who experience our services in the design process and outcome evaluation. Nicole has and will continue to be an integral part of our team, and we are grateful for her work with us, and with the communities we serve.”

- Program Manager, County of Santa Clara Chief Executive Office

“Nicole does this work with her whole heart. She makes space for people to feel heard and understood while turning ideas into action. Despite her many years of expertise in research, evaluation, and human-centered design work, she doesn’t assume she has all the answers. She approaches all the work she does with a mindset that good solutions are only found when everyone can bring their strengths to the table.”

- Former Program Manager, Kids in Common

“Nicole makes it possible for us to focus on working with our clients by setting us up with top-of-the-line data systems to track the work we do and tools for understanding how to use that data to inform our next steps.”

- Director of Workforce Development

“Nicole, thank you for transmitting the passion for your work to our group.”

—Promotora Resident Leader

“As a growing non-profit, Nicole has supported us in taking things to the next level. Nicole's professionalism and dedication to her work is seen in the results. Nicole makes it possible for us to focus on working with our clients by setting us up with top-of-the-line data systems to track the work we do and tools for understanding how to use that data to inform our next steps. Nicole is a huge part of our success. We could not do it without her. Thank you, Nicole.”

- Director of Workforce Development

“Working with Nicole and Mighty Catalyst has been a dream! Nicole is efficient, organized, and clearly passionate about our shared mission to support meaningful youth programming. She has helped my team develop a logic model to understand the mechanisms of our youth research and mentoring program, and I am deeply grateful for how she includes the youth as evaluators themselves. We work to serve these young people, so it only makes sense to let them help to shape the program themselves! The data, insight and guidance she provides are invaluable. I am deeply grateful to have her on our team!” 

- Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University

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