Our Team

Meet Our Team

We are product designers and behavioral scientists. We are deeply passionate about designing our systems and our environment to change behavior.

Connect with us

Interested in applying behavioral science?

Behavioral Design Blog

Get actionable insights into how behavioral science is revolutionizing product design and improving people’s lives.

TEDx Talk: Kristen Berman

Watch Kristen Berman’s TEDx Berlin talk: ‘Don’t Listen To Your Customers – Do This Instead.’

Join our Bootcamp

Understand your customers’ choices and learn how to change their behavior for the better — in our 8-week online Behavioral Design course.

Learn More

Kristen Berman

Co-Founder

Kristen Berman studies how people actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational.

Kristen founded Irrational Labs, a behavioral product design company, in 2013. Irrational Labs helps companies and nonprofits understand and leverage behavioral economics to increase the health, wealth and happiness of their users. She also co-founded Common Cents Lab, a Duke University initiative dedicated to improving the financial well-being for low to middle Americans. Under Kristen’s leadership, Common Cents launched over 50 experiments with companies, touching tens of thousands of people. Kristen’s work has been featured in The Stanford Innovation Review, TechCrunch, and Scientific American.

She was on the founding team for the behavioral economics group at Google, a group that touches over 26 teams across Google, and she hosted one of the top behavioral change conferences globally, StartupOnomics. She co-authored a series of workbooks called Hacking Human Nature for Good: A practical guide to changing behavior. These workbooks are being used at companies like Google, Intuit, Netflix, Fidelity, Lending Club for business strategy and design work.

Before designing, testing and scaling products that use behavioral economics, Kristen was a Senior Product Manager at Intuit and startup, Lytro. She built product management and marketing systems for small businesses and consumers, for domestic and international markets. The core thread throughout this all is a deep passion for understanding why people behave the way they do and then building solutions that make their lives better. And in her personal life, Kristen lives behavioral science. She’s started a communal living environment called Radish, to design life for happiness.

Evelyn Gosnell

Managing Director

Evelyn is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs.

Evelyn is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs and a frequent speaker in behavioral economics and consumer psychology. She excels at helping companies leverage the science of decision-making to create better products and services by understanding how real people think and behave.

Evelyn’s work spans a broad array of industries: she has worked with Google, Airbnb, Procter & Gamble, The World Bank, TikTok, Microsoft, Intuit, and Indeed, among others. Evelyn also led the development of Irrational Labs’ Behavioral Economics Bootcamp, and is passionate about training others in behavioral science methodologies.

Evelyn transitioned to behavioral economics from Product Management and Marketing. She started her career at Christian Dior Parfums in Paris and subsequently worked in various product management, marketing, and sales positions.

Her product background means she speaks the language of product folks and understands their pain points like no other.

Evelyn holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Duke University and graduated summa cum laude. She also completed a Master’s degree in Marketing from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in France. She speaks fluent French and Russian. Her family often teases her for starting sentences with “studies show,” a telltale sign of her inner nerd.

Visit her website to learn more and engage her as a speaker.

Richard Mathera

Managing Director

Richard is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs and head of Irrational Labs' healthcare practice.

Richard Mathera is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs. He leads Irrational Labs’ healthcare practice and formerly led its financial decision-making work. Richard has overseen dozens of behavioral economics projects and experiments with commercial clients. A few of these include: One Medical, TytoCare, Neugen, Vouchers 4 Veggies, Steady, Beneficial State Bank, Simple, and Credit Karma.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Richard was a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the Common Cents Lab, a Duke University initiative which leverages behavioral economics to improve the financial well-being of low and moderate income Americans, where he designed and launched numerous behaviorally-informed products, features, initiatives, and experiments.

Formerly Richard has applied behavioral economics at ideas42 and developed randomized controlled trials at Innovations for Poverty Action in Morocco. He has also served as a Team Lead/Senior Investment Officer and a Senior Advisor at USAID’s Office of Development Credit and worked at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm specializing in complex commercial litigation.

Richard holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he studied Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, where he studied economics, Spanish, and French, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

Katie Dove

Managing Director

Katie Dove is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs.

Katie is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs and a keynote speaker on behavioral economics. She helps product teams drive measurable growth—across pricing, onboarding, and conversion.

A computer scientist turned behavioral scientist, Katie’s focus has shifted from system design to decoding how users really engage—or don’t—with products. For over a decade now, she has studied how companies create meaningful connections with their customers and deliver engaging experiences at scale. She’s especially known for her work on the psychology of personalization & value perception.

Katie advises leading organizations across Tech and Finance, including companies like Microsoft, Airtable, Discover, LinkedIn, OpenStore, Udemy, and Capital One. She has also led behavioral design initiatives in Latin America, partnering with Brazil’s Treasury & B3 (the Brazilian Stock Exchange), and Banco BV.

Katie is also a sought-after keynote speaker and educator. She has delivered keynotes for iconic organizations like the BBC, JP Morgan, and Vimeo, and headlined conferences including INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, Finovate, and Experimentation Elite. She teaches graduate-level seminars in behavioral design for institutions like the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Carnegie Mellon’s MIIPS program.

Before Irrational Labs, Katie was an early hire and leader in Deloitte Digital’s Human Experience practice. She also served as a policy analyst at The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS in Computer Science & Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Visit her website to learn more and engage her as a speaker.

Chaning Jang

Chief Strategy Officer

Chaning is the Chief Strategy Officer at Irrational Labs.

He leads strategic initiatives to drive innovation, technical excellence and growth at Irrational Labs.

Prior to Irrational Labs, Chaning was the CEO and Founder of The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, a non-profit based in Kenya, which applies behavioral science towards poverty alleviation. Chaning helped grow Busara from a small research laboratory to one of the largest and most renown behavioral science and international development organizations in the world with more than 140 employees across 5 continents. He personally led projects with the Gates Foundation, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the National Science Foundation, among others.

Chaning has published multiple book chapters on building behavioral science teams in organizations, and given keynote talks on behavioral science including the SBBC Summit and Nudgestock. His scientific work has been published in the Journal of Development Economics and Nature, Human Behavior, among others.

Chaning has a BS in Managerial Economics from UC Davis, a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawai’i and completed Post-doctoral research in Psychology and Public Affairs Princeton University. Prior to his PhD, Chaning was an equities and derivatives trader and English teacher.

Rachel Rosenberg

Behavioral Science Fellow

Rachel is a Behavioral Science Fellow at Irrational Labs.

Rachel Rosenberg is a Fellow at Irrational Labs, where she brings her passion for designing products and services that create positive social impact. Before joining Irrational Labs, she founded the behavioral science practice at Indeed and directed mixed-methods research and design teams focused on building experiences that help people find meaningful work and help employers connect with diverse, high-quality talent.

Previously, at ideas42, Rachel led and supported a portfolio of innovative pilots applying behavioral science to address poverty and inequality in partnership with governments, non-profits, and academic institutions. She also headed the machine learning portfolio, advancing methods at the intersection of behavioral and computational social sciences. Earlier in her career, she worked as a program evaluation consultant with the United Nations Development Programme and as a Research Fellow in partnership with the International Organization for Migration.

Rachel holds a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Stanford University and an M.A. in Development Economics and Conflict Resolution from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is fluent in Spanish, and in her free time, you can find her climbing Mt. Lemmon in Tucson.

Brad Goodwin

Director of Marketing

Brad Goodwin is Director of Marketing at Irrational Labs.

Brad Goodwin helps companies grow and scale through strategic branding, storytelling, and marketing.

His journey into marketing began in the Washington, D.C. punk scene, where everyone was a creator—whether that meant making music and ‘zines, photographing bands, organizing benefit shows, or inventing hair colors.

He has led marketing, brand, social media, and content teams at global companies, auction houses, in large, mid-size, and boutique agencies, and as co-founder of his own punk marketing agency. His clients have included Silicon Valley CEOs, entrepreneurs, Forbes Council members, tech companies, and behavioral scientists.

When Brad’s not learning a new language, training his two Russian Blue cats, or singing karaoke, he’s supporting Irrational Labs’s mission of bettering products and lives through behavioral science. He lives in Vienna, Austria.

Ryan Goble

Chief Learning Officer

Ryan leads the educational initiatives at Irrational Labs.

He specializes in “making curriculum pop” for learners in formal and informal settings. Ryan’s professional career began in the entertainment industry working as a field marketing representative for Virgin Records, DJing at NPR in Detroit, and doing production work at E! Entertainment Television.

After working in Los Angeles, Ryan transitioned into education. He started as a high school English teacher and developed into leadership positions in the New York City Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools and Glenbard Township High School District 87 in Glen Ellyn, IL. He joined the Irrational Labs team after serving as a high school and elementary school principal in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Ryan has been an adjunct professor in the education departments of Aurora, Benedictine, Roosevelt Universities (in the Chicagoland area), a lecturer at Columbia University, and occasionally teaches graduate education courses at Madonna University.

His consultancy Mindblue.com and social network Making Curriculum Pop led to collaborations and presentations for a wide variety of students, teachers, K-12 school districts, colleges and organizations like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Virgin Records and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His work has been featured in national media and he has written for publications including the Journal of Staff Development, Journal of Media Literacy, and The New York Times Learning Network. His first book on literacy and collaborative learning titled Making Curriculum Pop: Developing Literacies across All Content Areas (co-written with his mother) was co-published by the National Council Teachers of English (NCTE) and Free Spirit Press.

Ryan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Michigan. His doctorate is in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on adult education and cognitive science from Columbia University in New York City. He presently lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and daughter.

Lindsay Juarez

Behavioral Scientist

Lindsay Juarez is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Lindsay is an expert in applying behavioral science insights to encourage meaningful behavior change. She is particularly interested in interventions that make taking the daily behaviors that lead to long-term goal success—such as exercising or saving for retirement—not just easier but also more enjoyable and fun. At Irrational Labs, Lindsay focuses on designing and testing interventions in the financial and health domains. Before she joined Irrational Labs, she was a Senior Behavioral Researcher at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University, a behavioral science center committed to research make people happier, healthier, and wealthier.

Prior to her work at Irrational Labs and the CAH, Lindsay worked for the federal Government Accountability Office and at New York University on a series of multi-site school interventions to reduce the racial academic achievement gap. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation and published in top policy and psychology journals. She’s consulted for energy and sustainability non-profits and worked with clients as varied as meditation start-ups and cookbooks to international banks to incorporate behavioral science insights.

Lindsay received her BA in psychology from Reed College and her MA and PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia. In the service of the quest for enjoyable exercise, she’s completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification and two barre instructor certifications.

Lisa Zaval

Behavioral Scientist

Lisa is a behavioral scientist and research consultant with broad expertise in behavioral economics, consumer behavior, and social psychology.

Lisa Zaval is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs, where she’s spent the past eight years applying insights from behavioral economics, consumer psychology, and social science to help companies design for better decisions. She has led projects with clients across industries—including Meta, Marriott, Argenx, Microsoft and Intuit—translating behavioral research into impactful business solutions.

Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Judgment and Decision Making Psychology from Columbia University, where she also completed postdoctoral training at the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School. With 3k+ citations, her academic research has been published in top journals including Psychological Science, PNAS, Current Opinion in Behavioral Science, and Nature Climate Change, and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Scientific American.
Before joining Irrational Labs, Lisa conducted applied behavioral science consulting across sectors such as energy efficiency, health care, financial services, and market research, partnering with organizations including Ipsos, MDRC’s Center for Applied Behavioral Science, and the United Nations.

Isabel Macdonald

Behavioral Scientist

Isabel Macdonald is a Behavioral Scientist with Irrational Labs.

She holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University, with a specialty in behavioral economics. She is passionate about how a deeper understanding of economic and psychological forces can guide the development of technology tools for social good. She has worked with financial institutions, NGOs, and government agencies to implement large scale experiments, as well as to develop tech products that help users achieve their financial and professional goals.

Previously, Isabel was a consultant in the Talent practice for Mercer Consulting. In this role, she advised Fortune 500 companies on developing talent pipelines, HR analytics, and compensation strategies that maximize employee motivation and productivity.

Isabel also holds a postdoctoral research position at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Her current research explores how mobile apps help teachers implement remedial education and how blockchain and crypto-backed wallets advance financial inclusion globally.

Monica Zhang

Behavioral Scientist

Monica is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Monica specializes in the intersection between Behavioral Science and Service Design. She enjoys blending insights from organizational, cognitive, and social psychology with human-centered design tools to change behavior both within teams and with customers. Monica has enabled product and service teams to unpack how context shapes decisions, form hypotheses, and build testable designs to help end-users flourish.

Before Irrational Labs, Monica worked as a Service Designer at a Canadian bank (CIBC) and as a Behavioral Economics consultant for a boutique firm (BEworks) across a variety of sectors. She’s helped reduce bias in hiring, increase savings and manage debt, improve energy conservation, and increase school attendance, among other real-world problems.

Monica holds an Honors Psychology degree from McGill University and an MSc in Organizational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics. More than that, her years of practical experience have taught her how to apply theory and evidence to make a difference in this complex, messy, and wonderful world in which we behave.

Karl Purcell

Behavioral Scientist

Karl is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Karl is a passionate advocate for behavioral science having built a number of behavioral science teams throughout his career. He believes that by combining rapid experimentation with a deep understanding of human behavior, organizations can help people to become healthier, happier, and wealthier.

At Irrational Labs, Karl helps leading Fortune 500 companies turn behavioral insights into confident, scalable decisions. Karl’s work involves using behavioral science to inform strategic decision making, improve trust & safety, and increase adoption of AI among both workers and consumers. His super-power is designing realistic out-of-product experiments that help companies answer thorny research questions about what products to build, how to build them, and how they should be priced.

Karl is an entertaining and enthusiastic presenter who helps people get excited about applying behavioral science, having previously lectured at Dublin City University and designing bespoke training programs for leading Irish financial institutions.

Prior to working with Irrational Labs, Karl played a key role in driving the adoption of behavioral science in Irish policymaking. Working in Ireland’s Department of Finance, he built a network of behavioral science enthusiasts, successfully secured funding for the application of behavioral science, and delivered the Irish government’s first randomized control trial to increase jobseekers’ attendance at job centres.

Following his work in the Department of Finance, Karl was headhunted to create and lead a behavioral science team at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). During his time as program manager, he successfully delivered over 25 discrete research projects, 5 randomized controlled trials, and co-designed decision aids such as the SEAI’s electric vehicle comparison tool.

Karl has advised government leaders at the highest levels on how to apply behavioral science to improve policy outcomes. Most recently Karl provided advice to Ireland’s National Public Health and Emergency Team on how to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and maximize vaccination uptake.

Karl received his MSc in Behavioural Science for Management from the University of Stirling and his BSc in Business and Finance from Dublin City University. Karl also holds a higher diploma in science in data analytics from Dublin Business School.

Pauline Kabitsis

Behavioral Scientist

Pauline is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Pauline Kabitsis is a behavioral scientist who applies behavioral design to challenges in technology, health, and global development. At Irrational Labs, she works with companies such as Airbnb, Microsoft, LinkedIn, TikTok, Roche, TytoCare, and PayPal to rethink product design, pricing, and AI adoption—delivering measurable results including a 24% increase in health plan enrollment, a 64% rise in telemedicine visits, and a 15% reduction in misinformation spread on social media.

She previously launched BEworks’ first health practice, growing it to $800K in its first year, and went on to build and lead Common Thread’s behavioral science team, scaling it into a global group of researchers. Her international work has spanned more than a dozen countries, where she has advised the World Bank, UNICEF, Gavi, the Gates Foundation, and the International Rescue Committee, while training hundreds of UN staff to apply behavioral science in public health and policy.

Pauline’s research has been published in top-tier journals, and she has been a featured speaker at global forums including Mayo Clinic Transform, IUHPE, and Mad*Pow HxD. She holds an MSc in Global Public Health from McMaster University and a BSc in Psychology from Queen’s University, both earned with distinction. Outside of work, she enjoys scuba diving, tennis, and long walks with her dog.

Michael Daly

Behavioral Scientist

Michael is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs.

Michael is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs. He has experience applying behavioral science across numerous areas including customer experience, employee experience, financial services, and sustainability. Michael is passionate about helping individuals and organizations navigate an increasingly complex world by simplifying decision contexts.

Prior to Irrational Labs, Michael worked at Duke’s Center for Advanced Hindsight (CAH). There he helped local, state, and international government agencies make evidence-based redesigns to policies and services. His research focused on the application of behavioral science to problems such as increasing trust in elections and improving employee well-being and productivity. Project outcomes from Michael’s time at CAH have impacted over 2.5 million people in the U.S. and abroad.

Michael holds a Master’s Degree in Behavioral and Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Wake Forest University. He specializes in experimental design and analysis.

Suman Gidwani

Behavioral Scientist

Suman is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Suman is a behavioral science consultant at Irrational Labs. Suman has experience redesigning and launching behaviorally informed programs for social good. She has done work in the fields of health, sustainability, housing, and voting across the public and private sectors. Prior to working at Irrational Labs, Suman worked at the behavioral science organization ideas42, helped found the behavioral engine for voter engagement Vote Rev, and designed the inaugural behavioral voting program for low income voters at Jonathan Rose Companies. Suman received her BS in Neuroscience at Duke University and her MBA at the University of Michigan.

Eva Frishberg

Behavioral Scientist

Eva Frishberg is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs.

Eva Frishberg (she/her) is a behavioral scientist and community organizer who applies the science of human decision-making to improve programs, processes, and services that connect and support communities and individuals across domains. While working at ideas42, she supported city governments in incorporating behaviorally informed principles to improve the health and wellness of city employees, decrease bias in hiring and retention, improve staff relationships and work distribution for food and cash assistance, and improve Census completion for all New Yorkers. She also collaborated with Casey Family programs to reform child welfare systems and practices to be more equitable and less disproportionately harmful to BIPOC families.

Eva developed innovative approaches to reducing gun violence in Brooklyn and designed practices aimed at improving outcomes for those touched by the criminal punishment system in probation departments and diversion programs across the country. She has most recently worked with Hewlett to develop and train other behavioral scientists on tools making field research more equitable and less exploitative and extractive. By creating tools that address the socio-economic and racial gaps between researchers and the communities they work in, she hopes to mitigate negative impacts on communities of focus and create healthy, symbiotic relationships between academics, community partners, and marginalized individuals.

Eva received a BA in Psychology from Bard College, with a concentration in Social Psychology. She is also a gigging and recording musician, songwriter, and music instructor who is always working on a new album or collaborative project. In her free time, she organizes with climate organizers in her New Orleans, LA home.

Erin Mahoney

Behavioral Scientist

Erin Mahoney is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Erin Mahoney (she/her) is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs. She specializes in the intersection of behavioral economics and product design research, putting human behavior at the center of product strategy and design decisions.

Erin works with clients to design products and services based on a deeper understanding of users. Her work at Irrational Labs spans organizations in the tech, health, education, consumer, and government sectors, with particular emphasis on qualitative & quantitative research, building complex consumer mental models, and partnering with in-house teams from strategy through launch, She has built custom frameworks to embed behavioral science in client teams, designed and tested interventions that shifted perception and behavior, and led research programs to understand and communicate user decision-making.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Erin worked in higher education consulting (EAB) and design research and consulting (Essential Design). Throughout her career, she has developed particular interests in workplace engagement and in the visualization and communication of data.

Erin holds a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Yale University, where she focused on psycholinguistics and language acquisition. She received her M.Ed. in Mind, Brain, and Education at Harvard University, where she studied data analysis, neurodevelopment, and learning analytics.

Alex Blau

Behavioral Scientist

Alex Blau is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Lab.

Alex Blau (he/him) is an applied behavioral scientist with over a
decade of experience leveraging design research and insights about
human decision making to help nonprofits, for-profits, and government
partners achieve greater impact through their products, programs, and
services.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Alex was Vice President at ideas42,
and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the ideas42 Venture Studio. At the
ideas42 Venture Studio, Alex built a first-of-its-kind behaviorally
informed technology, Vergil, designed to help justice system-impacted
individuals identify, engage, and persist in recidivism-reducing
community based programs and services. At ideas42, Alex led
multi-county multi-partner A/B testing initiatives for digital
financial service providers in South Asia, built novel savings
programs for cocoa farmers in Indonesia, advised U.S. based fintech
startups on behavioral design, spearheaded ideas42’s U.S.
cybersecurity portfolio, and supported public safety and after school
program initiatives for the Western Cape Government in South Africa.

Alex received his BA in Political Science and International
Development from Brown University, and his MSc. in Food Policy and
Applied Nutrition Science from Tufts University. When he’s not
designing for behavior change, Alex is mastering new cooking
techniques, writing and recording music, and trying to stay as fit as
possible so he can keep up with his two little kids.

Juan Cruz Loureiro

Behavioral Scientist

Juan Cruz Loureiro is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Juan Cruz Loureiro is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs. He has designed and tested several behaviorally informed interventions across a range of contexts and domains, with a focus on consumer behavior and financial decision-making. He is passionate about turning theory into practice to drive positive behavior change, as well as conducting real-world experiments to understand what works (and what doesn’t) in helping people lead happy and prosperous lives.

Before joining Irrational Labs, Juan was a Behavioral Researcher at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight conducting applied research aimed at helping low- and middle-income households improve their financial wellbeing, in the US and abroad. He also has a background in digital product management in the fintech and banking industry across LATAM and holds an MSc in Behavioral Science from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Jeffrey Ott

Behavioral Scientist

Jeff is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs.

Jeff Ott is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs, where he partners with organizations in the health, finance, and education sectors to design behaviorally informed solutions. He has worked with a Fortune 500 fintech company to increase AI adoption, led in-person trainings with engineers and bankers across Europe and Asia, and developed systems to strengthen workforce development programs throughout the United States. Across all of his work at Irrational Labs, Jeff is passionate about putting the user perspective at the forefront of every design decision.

Pia Karpowitz

Behavioral Scientist

Pia is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Pia specializes in taking behavioral science out of the lab and into the real world, creating exceptional user experiences through evidence-based design. She develops and tests interventions with a particular focus on digital products that support financial well-being and healthier lifestyle choices. She is passionate about driving positive behavior change and conducting real-world experiments that reveal what truly works in helping people make better decisions.

Before joining Irrational Labs, Pia worked across health technology and financial services sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal. When not exploring behavioral insights, she can be found hiking, skiing, or enjoying the countryside.

Lydia Trupe

Behavioral Scientist

Lydia is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Lydia has applied behavioral science to design solutions to some of the world’s most pressing health problems. She has worked in 8 different countries, including her current home country of Zambia. Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Lydia spent 5 years at ideas42, including 3 years serving as Innovations Advisor for the USAID-funded Breakthrough ACTION Zambia project. She is currently a behavioral scientist at Common Thread, and in her spare time, she provides pro-bono behavioral science consulting to Zambian social enterprises. Lydia is also an honourary lecturer at the University of Zambia, where she teaches Applied Behavioral Science for Health Promotion. She holds a BA in Political Science from the George Washington University and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Cape Town. When she’s not thinking about behavioral science, Lydia A/B tests the optimal way to ensure her vegetable garden just barely survives.

Cecilia Shang

Behavioral Scientist

Cecilia Shang is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Cecilia (she/her) is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs, working to help organizations deliver better products and services. She is particularly passionate about applying insights from human decision-making and behavior to advance climate change and sustainability efforts. Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Cecilia was a Senior Behavioral Designer at ideas42, where she led projects designing and testing behavioral interventions in domains including charitable giving, post-secondary education, agriculture, and transportation, in partnership with municipal governments, nonprofits, and organizations around the world.

Cecilia is pursuing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she also received an MPhil in Environmental Policy, with Distinction. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with certificates in Environmental Studies, Cognitive Science, and Dance.

In her free time, Cecilia can usually be found trying to optimize for food, dance, novel experiences, and laughter.

Abigail Sellman

Behavioral Scientist

Abigail is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Abigail is a behavioral scientist with a decade of experience designing behavior change solutions that drive measurable impact. Her work spans sectors and continents, and she’s partnered with governments, startups, and Fortune 500 companies to tackle complex challenges and build scalable interventions.

At Irrational Labs, Abigail has worked across finance, technology, and payments to help organizations strengthen culture, improve customer decision-making, and design effective digital communications. She also brings significant experience in health, education, and product design — giving her a unique perspective on how behavioral insights can translate across diverse industries.

Previously, Abigail was a Senior Behavioral Designer at ideas42, where she led teams through end-to-end design projects that focused on generating social impact and advancing global health outcomes. She is passionate about building behavioral science capability in others and has trained hundreds of professionals in applying behavioral insights to their work.

Abigail holds a Master’s in Economic Development from the University of Cape Town and a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She began her career at UC Berkeley, managing research at the intersection of behavioral economics and reproductive health.

Nicole Frederick

Behavioral Scientist

Nicole is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Nicole is a product designer turned behavioral scientist, blending a deep understanding of design with psychology, economics, and cognitive science principles. She’s passionate about distilling complex needs into purpose, and bringing actionable insights to the forefront of product decisions.

Before joining Irrational Labs, Nicole was a Principal at Slalom where she shaped company strategies, led design initiatives for new and existing products, and orchestrated global research programs for a variety of clients across financial services, healthcare, travel & hospitality, energy, government, and non-profit.

Nicole holds a BSBA from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Undergraduate Business School.

When not designing products, Nicole can be found climbing mountains, hanging out with her dog, and painting — ideally all at the same time.

Nathan Wang-Ly

Behavioral Scientist

Nathan Wang-Ly is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Nathan is a behavioural scientist at Irrational Labs who is passionate about helping people make better decisions so they can thrive in their everyday lives. He enjoys turning scientific insights into practical applications—especially when it means working alongside product, design, and engineering teams to bring those ideas to life. He is also interested in building systems and cultures that make organisations more evidence-driven and customer-centric.

Before joining Irrational Labs, Nathan led the Customer Decision Science team at ANZ, one of Australia’s major banks, where he oversaw behavioural science, experimentation, and measurement. Earlier in his career, he worked at CommBank, applying behavioural science to help people manage debt, choose the right financial products, and avoid scams. Across both roles, Nathan focused on creating simpler, more empowering banking experiences that reduce financial stress and make money management easier for everyone.

Nathan holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UNSW Sydney, where his research explored how people make financial decisions under uncertainty.

Harrison Neuert

Behavioral Scientist

Harrison Neuert is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Harrison Neuert (he/him) is an applied behavioral scientist and product manager. He uses insights from psychology, experimentation, and deep user research to build products for business and social impact.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, he was Head of Product at Nickels, a seed-stage fintech. There, he led the build out of CardFit – a card comparison tool for credit unions – applying behavioral insights to improve member acquisition for local financial institutions across the US. He also spent 5 years at ideas42, where he worked to apply behavioral insights to social problems in financial health, economic justice, and education. He holds a BA in Economics from Brown University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Outside of work, he’s a passionate cook, food writer, and analog photographer.

Griffin Smith

Behavioral Scientist

Griffin Smith is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Griffin applies behavioral science to solve complex problems across industry, social impact, and policy spaces. Griffin is especially interested in creative problem-solving; finding novel, practical ways to apply behavioral science in new contexts; and training others to use behavioral science.

Before joining Irrational Labs, Griffin led the North American behavioral science team at Ogilvy, applying behavioral insights across product, consulting, marketing, and public relations engagements. His clients ranged from federal agencies addressing natural hazards to fintech, tech, pharma, telecom, and CPG companies.

At ideas42, Griffin worked on a wide range of challenges, including adoption of new financial products, increasing charitable giving, improving digital experiences and conversion, boosting post-pandemic transit ridership, changing fertilizer use in rural India, improving education outcomes in South Africa, and building behavioral science capacity at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

As a research fellow at MIT, he explored behavioral barriers to environmental policy in support of the Malaysian federal government.

He holds degrees from Grinnell College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Ask him about bee distribution and policy change).

Outside of work, Griffin enjoys growing cuttings into 14-foot houseplants, experimenting with cocktails, running (ever more slowly), skiing (ever more cautiously), and being a dad to his (ever harder to carry) toddler.

Rahin Khandker

Behavioral Scientist

Rahin Khandker is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Rahin Khandker is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs with over a decade of experience applying behavioral design to improve products and services. Previously, Rahin served as a Principal Behavioral Designer at ideas42, where she led projects in post-secondary education, public policy, and global health. Her work includes designing programs in higher education to boost student financial aid, graduation, and retention rates; partnering with the cities of New York and Chicago to behaviorally design city policies and services; and leading global health projects focused on vaccine adoption, reproductive health services, and reducing provider bias in clinical settings.

Earlier in her career, Rahin worked at Innovations for Poverty Action, where she managed large-scale randomized evaluations of vaccine, handwashing, and girl empowerment interventions in Bangladesh. She also worked in Nepal, on a Stanford University study, collaborating with radio studios, graphic novelists, and local NGOs to design nationwide public awareness campaigns addressing human trafficking.

Rahin is deeply committed to building behavioral science capacity in others and has led workshops and trainings for university students, government officials, and policymakers. She holds an MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in Economics from the University of Florida. Outside of work, she enjoys yoga, knitting, puzzles and intergenerational friendships.

Joanna See

Admin

Joanna is an admin of Irrational Labs and executive assistant to Kristen Berman.

Joanna serves as the Executive Assistant to Kristen Berman and the Administrator at Irrational Labs. With years of experience, she has honed her skills in organization, executive support, and maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality. Known for her proactive approach and attention to detail, Joanna ensures that operations run smoothly and efficiently. She is deeply committed to fostering clear communication and embraces every opportunity for growth and learning, making her an indispensable asset to the team. Outside of work, she finds joy in spending quality time with her family and her beloved dogs, as well as exploring new hobbies and interests.

Don't Listen to Your Customers - Do This Instead

Meet Our Team

Interested in applying behavioral science?

Behavioral Design Blog

TEDx Talk: Kristen Berman

Join our Bootcamp

What’s your most irrational behavior?