Today we’d like to introduce you to Caitlyn Wang
Hi Caitlyn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a mom of two teenage girls who retired from running a public electronics company in Taiwan about ten years ago. Since then, I’ve found my life’s purpose in improving family relationships and wellness and started a grassroots tech nonprofit called curaJOY. We transform valuable academic research in behavioral science and psychology into accessible, practical, and fun clinician-supervised AI and virtual reality apps. At the same time, we upskill providers with the latest AI/machine learning techniques so they are able to shape and manage AI in healthcare.
curaJOY has over 80 team members now. Most are volunteers—AI engineers, professors, software developers, therapists, data scientists. Almost 80% of our team has an advanced Master’s degree or higher. The amount of talent and generosity from the community has surprised me.
There’s been a lot of recent attention given to the global mental health crisis, but the fact is people’s social and mental health has been on the decline for the past 30 years! There are multiple bottlenecks–the greatest one being the behavioral health provider shortage (especially diverse providers). Many therapists in our region aren’t taking new clients, and most have a waiting list. There needs to be more social-emotional wellness support. People need a lot more than one hour per week of therapy to learn healthier interaction patterns, break addictions and heal from trauma. We are a group of people who understand the issues and are capable and ready to solve these problems.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve spent more than two decades in a very white and very male-dominated industry where the only females at work were the hired showgirls and secretaries. There are a lot of stereotypes of women in engineering and technology, and even the constant doubt that female executives would be able to balance work and family. People make assumptions even when they don’t mean to, but one thing I have learned is to not internalize their stereotypes–build up my skills and let my actions do the talking. The challenges along the way helped make me more resilient and resulted in my ability to connect people from tech, healthcare, education and public policy to work together to stop generational trauma, prevent bullying and build social emotional skills.
curaJOY’s products improve relationships and behaviors based on people’s physical, mental, social and behavioral health. In the beginning, I had doubts whether such complex tech products could be built as a nonprofit. A lot of VCs and pharmaceutical companies approached us. But I firmly believe curaJOY is holding people’s hearts and minds in our hands, and we must treasure and guard that privilege. We want to create a system where nobody can sell and profit from the data and the consumer has ultimate power.
Life is never going to be smooth sailing all the way, and when you don’t expect everything to be easy, all challenges simply become opportunities to learn.
We’ve been impressed with curaJOY, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
curaJOY is a 501(c)3 non-profit that leverages cutting-edge technologies and proven behavioral health practices to create root-cause solutions to improve families’ emotional wellness and behavioral healthcare equity. Derived from the Latin word cura, meaning healing and diligence, curaJOY’s namesake aptly captures its work–Bringing a joy that heals. Building social and emotional wellness is an effective preventative measure for crime, unemployment, depression, anxiety, other psychological disorders, and societal problems. We partner with the brightest minds–clinicians, educators, parents, and kids–worldwide to develop scalable, inclusive digital programs that provide unlimited, evidence-based social and mental health support to promote better family dynamics, personal growth, continued practice, and authentic connections in real life. Our inclusive and family-centric approach aims to engage even the most underserved communities and regions without adequate behavioral health ecosystems, enabling families to become active participants on their growth journey, gain emotional intelligence, and self-awareness, and decrease parental stress and toxic family interaction patterns.
Our flagship product, MyCuraJOY, a clinician-supervised wellness coaching platform, piloted with Southern California behavioral healthcare providers this summer, and should be available to the general public this Fall.
What’s most unique about curaJOY is that we work at a systems-level to address both the healthcare provider shortage, make the industry more resilient and meaningfully support diverse communities’ social and mental health needs. MyCuraJOY provides the frequency and intensity of behavioral health support people need within the current systems’ limitations by breaking up care delivery into small chunks throughout the day and via different channels. Other solutions that only work with individuals or are handicapped by human availability because the whole family needs to grow together.
What’s next?
I’m very excited that we’ll be completing a pilot study on our program at the University of Montreal, and starting our next Youth Ambassadors cohort, where we train high school and college students from underserved communities in software testing, AI fine-tuning, prompt engineering and fundraising.
We’re offering MyCuraJOY for free to all youth, and planning to partner up with local schools and other nonprofits.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.curajoy.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mycurajoy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curajoy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@curajoy
