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Seriously, Jerk Brain?!

Seriously, Jerk Brain?!

"Self-preservation is a full-time occupation." – Ani DiFranco

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Author: 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.

It’s always Day 1

The Amazon.com management philosophy translates well to a framework for mental health wellness.

business, depression, emotional intelligence, jerk brain, mental health, recovery, therapy

Leftovers

Letting go of anything, even emotional baggage, is difficult. It is also freeing.

anxiety, depression, emotional baggage, mental health, recovery

Ma nishtahnah

This year, the first night of Passover was unlike any other. However, that’s what made it perfect.

anxiety, covid19, family, mental health, Passover

Coming back around

Looking back at nearly three months of blog posts, I do some autoethnographic research on myself to see how I’ve changed and, just maybe, gotten better.

anxiety, blogging, depression, lessons learned, mental health, recovery, reflections, research

Recovery update: A break in the clouds

It does get better.

anxiety, depression, medication, mental health, recovery

Learning to read the room

As I’ve written before, positivity can be toxic. In the throes of the COVID19 crisis, it’s important that we stay vigilant and call out actions that serve to shame those struggling with anxiety, depression, and other challenging circumstances.

anxiety, covid19, depression, economy, fear, inclusion, jerk brain, mental health, perfectionism, pretending, recovery, toxic positivity, what to say

The same, but different

A quantum mechanics principle provides a way to explain the depression I’m feeling from social distancing and quarantine.

anxiety, covid19, depression, medication, mental health, philosophy, physics, recovery, social distancing

Recovery update: The space between

Entering the homestretch of my medication taper and trying to discern what is frustration from social distancing and quarantine and what are symptoms of depression. There’s very little difference.

#jerkbrain, covid19, depression, exercise, exhaustion, fatigue, medication, mental health, recovery, shelter in place, social distancing

Birthday girl

My big girl turns eight today!

birthday, daughter, off topic

It’s (a)live!

The presentations (including mine!) from the QUT BEST Centre 2020 Conference are now available online.

behavioral economics, diversity, inclusion, leadership, phd, research

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