About 20 months ago, I started my PhD in psychology, focusing on organizational leadership. I have been fascinated by the science behind the way humans behave in groups, since I took organizational behavior as part of my MBA. Tomorrow, I get to present some of my work for the first time in an academic setting.
This morning I went for a long run in a big loop down and across the river. I didn’t think about the distance ahead of time, just the general route and the idea that if I needed to stop, I could. Before I knew it, I’d logged over five miles. Weather-wise, Brisbane’s winter is similar to Houston’s, in that it features fairly warm temperatures, humidity, and the kind of rain that doesn’t hurt to run in. It was here, in June 2015, that I started running, in remarkably similar conditions, warm rain. There’s something about being here that feels like coming full circle. It’s like my energy is returning.
My route this morning.
My presentation is ready to go. I’ve double-checked my references. I’m excited and slightly nervous. Here goes…
From history major, with side quests in Medieval Studies and chemical engineering, to nonprofit finance leader, Big 4 tax partner, technologist, researcher, and now co-founder of Divine, nothing about my career has been linear. The throughline has always been systems: financial systems, organizational systems, technological systems, and human systems. I have an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain Management and a PhD in Organizational Leadership Psychology, and I’ve spent my career trying to understand how complex systems shape people’s choices, opportunities, wellbeing, and sense of belonging. Today, my work sits at the intersection of psychology, technology, human-centered design, and digital trust. I am co-founder of Divine, an open-source, decentralized social video app built to put creativity back in human hands and replace doomscrolling with joyscrolling. Divine is part of a bigger question I care deeply about: how do we create online spaces that support safety, creativity, identity, and belonging without defaulting to surveillance, extraction, or control? At Divine, I wear a lot of hats across engineering, finance, operations, and strategy, while helping shape the app’s trust, safety, and values work. I focus especially on teen online safety, human-generated content, participatory design, and healthier relationships with technology. I am a postdoctoral alum of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Computer Science, where I worked with Dr. Pam Wisniewski’s Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab. I continue to write, speak, and research at the intersection of online safety, digital trust, decentralized technology, and youth wellbeing. I was named a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Data Integrity in 2023. In 2025, I had the honor of serving as President of Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Consulting Psychology. I also live with major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2020, I took a leave from PwC to focus on my mental wellness, and I now speak and write openly about mental health, especially in the workplace and in relation to digital wellbeing. This blog, Seriously Jerk Brain, chronicles much of that journey.
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Seriously, Jerk Brain?! 
Go, Liz!
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Exciting! Can’t wait to hear how it went.
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