Cutter

liz

About a month back, I concluded that my increased dose of Wellbutrin was helping. However, I detected that there was still a gap between what the medication was doing and what I needed from it to abate my depression. After consultation with my psychiatrist, we concluded that I might be missing the dopamine and endorphin boost I used to get from running. In the Before Time, I was an avid runner (although I admit that I have not enjoyed long runs since my running buddy moved away a couple of years ago). The places where I enjoy and feel safe running are not currently accessible to me.

I get a lot from my near-daily boot camp-style workouts, but they are not comparable to the heavy cardio session I get from running. In search of a solution, and possibly a little jealous of all of my neighbors who have recently acquired Pelotons, I got myself a bicycle trainer. It easily connects with the road bike I already have and, at less than a tenth of the price of a Peloton bike, it suits my frugal side. I’ve been spending about an hour a day pedaling away in the garage. I emphasize speed over resistance, getting my heartrate up to the point that it mimics my exertion level with running. The results have been quite promising so far. I’m sleeping better. I feel more awake and alert at appropriate times. It doesn’t give me the “runner’s high”, but it is enough of a boost that, with the Wellbutrin, I am feeling more like myself.

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Published by liz

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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