Joan is the co-founder and CEO of Arise, whose vision is to create a world where everyone, everywhere has the freedom to heal from eating disorders and disordered eating. Joan brings her own lived experience with eating disorders and mental health conditions alongside a deep empathy for the diversity of the mental health journeys of so many others to drive her work as a product leader in the mental health tech space.

Most recently, Joan was a product leader at Headspace Health where she led initiatives that empowered members to get into clinical care faster than ever before and led personalization initiatives with the AI/ML teams. Before Headspace, Joan led product at Click Therapeutics where she launched their first clinical trial product, a novel digital treatment for major depressive disorder that was recently approved by the FDA.

Before her work at mental health tech startups, Joan started her career in management consulting at Deloitte where she led projects to implement robotics process automation at a top global pharmaceutical company and EHR systems for a state-wide development disability service provider.

Joan holds a B.A. cum laude in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science from Harvard College, where she conducted fMRI research to understand how stress impacts our ability to utilize cognitive reappraisal and also published a book on the mental health experiences of Asian American students at Harvard.

Joan lives in Houston, TX with her partner (Eric) and their endlessly entertaining puppy (Ari) and perpetually grumpy cat (Charlie). Since moving to Houston from NYC during the pandemic, Joan has been focusing on spending more time with family and building an intentional community.

In this episode, Joan talks about:

Joan's personal experience with disordered eating and her advice for navigating care
Navigating her career from writing a book at Harvard to Deloitte Consulting to leading Product at Headspace
Raising over $10M from mission-aligned venture capital investors like BBG Ventures 
Drawing inspiration from female founders and investors like April Koh 


Resources:
Joan Zhang
Arise
Arise on Instagram
Arise on Twitter/X
Arise on TikTok
Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About:
They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer!

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