OneGoal Announces the Appointment of Chris Cox as National Board Chair
CHICAGO, March 24, 2021—OneGoal, a leading national college access and success organization, today announced Chris Cox was elected as the new national Board Chair during the February Board of Directors meeting. Cox, who has been a member of the Board since 2016 succeeds OneGoal Co-Founder, Jeff Nelson as he steps down but remains engaged with the organization as a national Board member.
“Even before taking on the role as Chair, Chris has offered up his time and expertise not only to me, but to OneGoal’s product development teams, holding regular meetings to support our current and future work,” said Melissa Connelly, OneGoal CEO. “His leadership will continue to be immeasurably valuable to our team as OneGoal, along with the rest of the world, adapts to our changing environment—one that demands we evolve the way we work and leverage technology to create smarter, more equitable supports, to build more authentic connections, and to empower students as they make life-changing decisions about their futures.”
Cox is Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Facebook where he builds the vision for product development and oversees its family of apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Cox was one of the first engineers to join Facebook and was tapped to build and lead Human Resources, setting the tone for Facebook’s organizational culture before taking on the role of CPO. Known by many as the heart of Facebook, Cox is dedicated to social justice, specifically focusing on educational equity, racial justice and combating the climate crisis.
“It’s a privilege to take on this post to support Melissa and the entire OneGoal team in this inspiring work,” shared Cox. “I know first-hand how businesses benefit from diverse talent that push our thinking. The work that OneGoal does to ensure more underserved students can fulfill their potential is not charity, it’s justice work and an investment in our country’s future.”
Founded in 2007 as an after-school program, OneGoal has grown to reach more than 12,500 students and evolved into an in-school, credit-bearing class in schools across the country. The three-year, teacher-led program begins during students’ junior year of high school and continues throughout their first year of postsecondary education. In 2020, the organization charted a new program vision to transform to a more rigorous, culturally relevant, low-cost, tech-enabled solution that puts user-friendly tools in the hands of students and teachers. The pandemic accelerated this transformation, and within a matter of weeks the organization had moved its program online positioning its teachers to effectively facilitate OneGoal virtually, while still privileging the importance of relationships. As the organization looks forward, it aims to build the foundation required to not only continue to serve more students within the regions it currently serves, but also serve more of the 1.4 million juniors who begin their postsecondary journey with very little support.
About OneGoal
OneGoal is a leading college access and success organization that works to close the degree divide and create a more equitable future for students. We partner with schools in low-income communities across the country to ensure postsecondary planning, preparation, and support are no longer extracurricular luxuries but integral components of the high school experience. OneGoal is a three-year program that starts as a class in students’ junior and senior years of high school and continues during the critical transitional period through their first year of college or other postsecondary path. 86% of OneGoal high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution and 76% of those who enroll persist one year after high school. In the 2019/20 school year, OneGoal reached some 12,500 students in the Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, Massachusetts, Metro Atlanta, and New York.