Colette partners with funders, nonprofits, and government agencies to understand and implement best practices based on research and strengthen their performance measurement systems to measure success. Colette also works on collective action initiatives to facilitate coordination among multiple stakeholders across sectors to achieve a common set of outcomes. Colette’s projects focus on public health access and equity, early childhood development and education, K-12 education, and college access and success.

Colette joined Root Cause in 2006 to launch its research and nonprofit assessment work. Leveraging experience from the business sector on how data is used to inform investor expectations of performance, Colette led a team in researching social issues to publish best practices likely to lead to positive outcomes and assessing over a hundred nonprofits. Colette also led the development of the Peer Performance Exchange, which provided programs with independent analysis, benchmarking against the field, and peer learning.

Prior to Root Cause, Colette worked in product development and internal strategy consulting at financial services firms, including Franklin Templeton, Scudder Weisel Capital, and Deutsche Bank. Colette also serves as the Vice Chair of Board of Trustees for the Phoenix Charter Academy Network. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from the University of Rochester in Political Science.

Current and Past Projects:

• Customized Capacity Building and Technical Assistance for State Street Foundation Grantees
• Centering Healthcare Institute
• Ready for School, Ready for Life and The Duke Endowment
• Boston Workforce Investment Network
• Girlstart
• HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) National Resource Center Performance Measurement & Evaluation
• Where can Equity Begin?: Taking Steps to Build Collective Action in Rhode Island
• Building Community Wealth in Springfield, Massachusetts
• Strategic Planning to Grow the Impact of the Tillotson Fund
• Strategic Planning with Boston Public Schools: Designing the Next Phase of a College, Career, and Life Readiness Partnership Coordination
• The Peer Performance Exchange
• Pay for Success Coaching 
• Youth Violence Prevention Funder Learning Collaborative

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