A feature (or bug, depending on your worldview) of my home is the near-constant Moana karaoke provided by my daughters. For those who may not know, Disney released an animated musical feature in 2016 called Moana. Inspired by Polynesian folklore, the movie tells the tale of a young woman, the daughter of her island-village’s chief, who perilously traverses the ocean to find the Demi-God Maui (brilliantly voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who can help her to save her home (and the world) by restoring the Goddess Te Fiti’s heart. Mad Max-esque pirate coconuts, a beloved grandmother, a clueless rainbow-feathered chicken, and a gilded crab in the style of Frank-N-Furter round out the adventure. Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of In the Heights and Hamilton, wrote the songs so they’re catchy as hell.
The film’s central question concerns Moana’s identity. Is she her own person or is she who others want her to be (e.g., dutiful daughter, future chief, wayfinder and voyager)? Personally, my favorite character is the crab, but that may just be me.
In some ways, we are all Moana. Or maybe I’m just projecting. I identify with Moana in her quest to figure out who she is apart from the expectations foisted upon her by others. It feels like I’ve spent most of this year focused on this question. That said, I don’t know that I’m closer to an answer now than I was in January.
At the end of her story, Moana lists (in song, of course) all of the dimensions of her identity ranging from daughter to someone who loves the sea and is called by it. The note she ends on (sorry, I can’t help myself) is that she is ultimately herself. A collection of contradictions and paradoxes, a living history and an as-yet unrealized future.
And maybe that’s the lesson. When all is said and done, I’m just myself. And that is more than enough.
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?! 
Now I need to subscribe to Disney +
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