My mind is coming back to me and it’s in overdrive. The ideas I’ve been unable to ruminate on for the last many months have emerged, demanding attention. My concentration is still spotty, so these thoughts continue to spin in my head until I can catch them, like the Golden Snitch.
I explained it to my psychiatrist today this way: normally, ideas bounce around my head like a pinball machine. However, the current state of affairs is closer to an aggressive game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. My doctor’s suggestion was to begin jotting these thoughts down and, perhaps, addressing them more fully in writing when I’m ready. It’s a good idea and I want to take it up.
Since I already have a regular writing practice (i.e., this blog), it seems natural that I should use this medium as part of this new practice. There is an abundance of material in my head, all of it I find interesting, but I’d love it if I could use this exercise as a way to speak to topics that are of interest to those (brilliant, beautiful) people who read my ramblings.
So, I’m putting it out there: what would you be interested in hearing about?
A few of the subject areas floating around include behavioral economics (why people make the choices that they do given the decision frameworks they have), organizational leadership (how people in groups influence others and make decisions), and organizational behavior (how people function in groups).
If the answer is that I’m the only one really fascinated by this stuff, that’s cool too. But, if you are interested, drop me a note through the Contact page or leave a comment below.
p.s. I’m also happy to take questions about my experiences with depression and recovery.
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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4 Comments
It’s your blog. Post whatever you want. I have done ever since you gave me my blog nine years ago. I care whether people read my stuff, but I won’t change what I write to suit anyone but me.
These three all fascinate me. I read about how my brain works and others all the time. If you’re going pick up just one of these topics, I’d be interested most in organizational leadership.
Seriously, Jerk Brain?! 
It’s your blog. Post whatever you want. I have done ever since you gave me my blog nine years ago. I care whether people read my stuff, but I won’t change what I write to suit anyone but me.
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These three all fascinate me. I read about how my brain works and others all the time. If you’re going pick up just one of these topics, I’d be interested most in organizational leadership.
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I love your writing and all three topics interest me so I’m down for any one of them or all three! Pick the one you wake up thinking about 🙂
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I would love to hear about any of those three topics. Thanks for sharing with us!
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