About Cobalt Collective
Cobalt Collective is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to improve real-world outcomes in learning, health, and work. We do this by turning what we learn from our engagements with innovators into open-source methods, tools, and playbooks so that impact measurement becomes the norm.
Right-sized
Impact measurement is the smallest project that credibly answers the most pressing questions.
Useful data, whatever the result
We'd rather fund a useful study capable of finding nothing than a meaningless one engineered to produce a number.
We share what we learn
The methods and tools that come out of this work get published so impact measurement becomes the norm.
Meet the Founding Executive Director
Clark McKown, Ph.D., is Founding Executive Director of Cobalt Collective.
Previously he was Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center, where he and his colleagues developed, field tested, and validated digital assessments of children's social and emotional competence with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences and others. He founded xSEL Labs to bring those assessments to market. They are still in use in school districts across the country. 7 Mindsets acquired xSEL Labs in 2023, and Clark served as its Chief Science Officer, where he led the causal impact study that earned the company ESSA Tier II recognition — one of the federal evidence tiers districts and states use to decide what to buy.
Clark has been on both sides of the questions Cobalt exists to answer: He has written grant proposals, built products and companies, published peer-reviewed articles (and blog posts), and been asked to prove it works more times than he can count.
Clark holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and a B.A. from Yale.
Clark McKown, Ph.D.
Cobalt Collective is governed by a four-member board: Jennifer Carolan (Chair) and Jomayra Herrera, both affiliated with Reach Capital, and Jen Wu and Karl Rectanus, independent directors.
