My why

liz

Over three years into this blog, I still get asked from time to time why I do it. Why do I make myself vulnerable in such a public forum? Do I write for me or for other people?

I do it because I’ve committed to doing something everyday that challenges me. I do it because if I don’t, who will? It helps me to see my own progress and process my own thoughts. And, I know that it helps others who don’t yet feel confident that they can address and overcome their mental health difficulties themselves.

For a long time, I felt very alone. I was told I wasn’t, but I never saw anyone else who I knew was going through what I was.

I want to be the person I needed then. And, I want to be the person I need now.

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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.

2 Comments

  2. A very good friend of mine, also in recovery from depression/anxiety/actress/singer/whatever, and now a coach, talks a lot about the value of exposure to vulnerability. She was a guest on a very good MH podcast and talked brilliantly about how it’s of value to her. Will see if I can dig it out for you.

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