In response to her husband’s recent public statements and reported behavior, Kim Kardashian West posted a statement to her social media feeds today asking for compassion and empathy for Kanye West. Kanye has spoken publicly about living with bipolar disorder and included references to it in his music. Because of his celebrity, the situation has garnered a lot of attention.
There are aspects of Kim’s statement that I find problematic, in particular the association of madness and genius. The idea that there is a connection between brilliant creativity and mental illness has led people to not seek treatment in the past, afraid that addressing their condition would compromise their innovation. However, considered as a whole, Kim’s statement is one of the most honest, authentic, and stark commentaries I have seen written by someone whose partner is living with mental illness.
Having been present with others who are struggling and also as someone struggling myself, I recognize the heartbreak in her words. No matter how much you love the other person, you cannot make them seek or maintain treatment. How they act while in the throes of their condition is also not a referendum on how they feel about you.
I count myself lucky to be surrounded by people who have loved and supported me through my depression. As I’ve written before, I am in the privileged position of having people around me, including and especially my healthcare providers, who believe me and take my symptoms seriously. Many others are not in a similar position. There is still so much work to do to destigmatize mental health in our society. I hope that transparency, like the kind Kim demonstrated, contributes to a better future for everyone affected by mental health challenges and those who love them.
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?! 