Angela Cobb
Angela is a strategist, executive coach, and social innovator. She is founder and CEO of FirstGen Partners LLC, a firm that provides consul0ng and coaching to organizations and individuals who seek to do good in the world. She has over three decades of experience in the areas of talent and belonging, community development, strategy, and change management. She also has extensive experience launching and leading new philanthropic efforts and business ventures. In her practice, Angela works with social enterprises and corporations to develop leaders and use culture and strategy to drive results.
Prior to starting her consulting practice, Angela spearheaded the New Options Project –a 3-year, $28M investment of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that connected opportunity youth to employment pathways. Angela also served as the first Chief Diversity Officer at Teach For America– the country’s national teaching corps. In her work at Allstate, Ms. Cobb launched two major philanthropic initiatives. She was the first person responsible for bringing a strategic focus to the company’s hometown civic and cultural investments, directing over $25M in community investments. Angela also launched and led The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse®, a signature program focused on economic self-sufficiency for survivors of domestic violence. Prior to joining Allstate, Angela helped launch and bring Monster’s Diversity and Inclusion division to profitability. Her experience also includes working in various capacities at Deloitte, an international professional services firm, including serving as a consultant in the change management practice, serving as the firm’s first DEI manager, managing the firm’s social impact initiatives, and working as a national recruiter. Angela joined Deloitte in 1993 as an Audit Associate in the Cincinnati office.
Angela serves on the boards of the Neurodiversity Alliance and the Erikson Institute. She recently completed a term as a member of the board of FirstTee of Greater Chicago and for 8-years served on the board of NewRoot Learning Institute (formerly Umoja Student Development Corporation). Past leadership and honors include serving as a Trustee of the University of Notre Dame and as a member of the Advisory Council for the University’s Mendoza College of Business. Angela is a 2008 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and in 2014 completed the Pahara-Aspen Fellowship, part of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network. Angela serves as a moderator for both the Aspen Institute and the Pahara Institute.
Mrs. Cobb is a 2000 graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where she received an M.B.A. in Organizational Behavior and Strategy. Angela is a 1993
graduate of the University of Notre Dame where she received a B.B.A. in Accounting. She resides in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with her husband, Darryl, and their two children.