The first week of the term went well for my industrial and organizational psychology class. My biggest fear, that students wouldn’t actively participate in the discussion, was entirely unfounded. This is an engaging and insightful group. Although during my teacher training course I did some practice grading exercises so I could learn how to use the system, none of the assignments I reviewed were for real students that I knew. This week has been different.
I’ve graded both the discussion and the written assignments and shared the results with the class. Part of me thought I would be what I think of as a tough grader, nitpicking small details and seeking perfection. To that end, I’m pleasantly surprised by my instincts. What’s made the difference, I think, is that I’m approaching it from a place of empathy.
As I offer feedback, I’m thinking about what would have helped me the most when I was in their shoes. Sometimes I would get back papers with only the boxes on the rubric checked. It didn’t help me understand what I could do to improve, what would set me up for success as I continued in the program.
Applying these thoughts to my mental health journey, I realize how helpful and generative it has been to hear from people who have been in similar headspaces to my own. Their words haven’t been judgmental or prescriptive but rather offering a perspective for my consideration. Occasionally, they have reframed something or offered me another resource to consult.
In this way, we are all teaching and all learning.
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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2 Comments
A good teacher, like a good student, is always learning.
Brava! and right on. Achieving empathy is liberating, as I began to learn somewhere in my mid-30s, I stress “began” because for me it is ongoing almost 50 years later, like quietly crossing an invisible line in the sand after you’ve knocked down the once impermeable wall (or peeled back the layers of onion to find there is nothing lurking there in that center dark and secret that you’ve been defending against the world, just you), and with empathy comes understanding yourself and caring for that self and then others. It’s an easy concept to see but to live that connectedness takes courage and humility.
Seriously, Jerk Brain?! 
A good teacher, like a good student, is always learning.
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Brava! and right on. Achieving empathy is liberating, as I began to learn somewhere in my mid-30s, I stress “began” because for me it is ongoing almost 50 years later, like quietly crossing an invisible line in the sand after you’ve knocked down the once impermeable wall (or peeled back the layers of onion to find there is nothing lurking there in that center dark and secret that you’ve been defending against the world, just you), and with empathy comes understanding yourself and caring for that self and then others. It’s an easy concept to see but to live that connectedness takes courage and humility.
LikeLiked by 1 person