Who created the Developer Health OS and Why?

Our motivation for creating the Developer Health OS comes from deeply personal experiences related to our health in the tech industry.

Authors

Gabe Greenberg

Gabe Greenberg, Founder & CEO of G2i

Gabe spent more than eight years suffering from a chronic illness rooted in consistent overworking. While building the company, Gabe clocked 60 to 70-hour work weeks on average, all while growing more distant from his wife and young children. For years, Gabe experienced extreme headaches, fatigue, and pain throughout his body daily. It wasn’t until he was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) caused by exposure to toxic mold that he was forced to slow down and reevaluate his work/life priorities and practices.

The path to recovery required honest self-reflection, regularly meeting with health professionals for mental and physical health, leadership coaching, and a complete overhaul of how Gabe worked and ran his company. This was only made possible by the support of the global developer ecosystem that rallied behind Gabe, which raised money for his medical expenses and offered him encouragement.

Creating developer health programming and resources is a means of giving back to the developer community that aided Gabe’s recovery and paying forward the aid he received. Gabe’s story isn’t unique; the industry has already planted the seeds of support, and our goal is to simply water, or champion, this existing foundation.

Michelle Bakels

Michelle Bakels, Program Director at G2i

Michelle has been a software developer for the last several years at companies of various sizes and industries. Although her first job was with a phenomenal company, the team she was personally on was saddled with bureaucracy that allowed harassment and toxic behavior to continue for years without accountability. Without prior experience in the tech industry, Michelle pushed through persistent systemic issues until the stress manifested into an alarming heart condition that affected every part of her life, from work meetings to washing dishes.

The cardiologist told Michelle that the only way to alleviate her heart issues was to remove the underlying stressors while managing the symptoms with temporary medication. Michelle changed jobs, and everything seemed great, until it wasn’t. Her new position became untenable, and her heart condition returned. Defeated, she wondered if every job would be like this and if staying in tech meant enduring heart issues indefinitely.

Michelle and Gabe met through their local tech community in South Florida and quickly learned of their shared experiences with health issues. The two agreed that the industry lacked a dedicated focus on the health of technologists despite how common it is for tech workers to experience burnout and extreme stress. Shortly after their meeting, Michelle officially joined G2i to lead programming and initiatives to support developers’ physical and mental health, which has included the creation of The Developer Health Operating System.

Expert Contributors

Dr. Craig Tanio

Craig Tanio, MD, Advisory Board Member at G2i

Dr. Tanio is trained in general internal medicine, brain health, longevity, and precision medicine. He is a co-founder of Rezilir Health. He oversees the clinical team helping patients with complex chronic conditions that are not well addressed through conventional medicine. This includes patients with cognitive decline, neurodegenerative disorders, ME/CFS, Long Covid, environmentally acquired illnesses, autoimmune conditions as well as healthy aging. His practice addresses the root cause of these conditions and looks to give patients complete and practical options using an evidence informed approach pulling from multiple disciplines within medicine. He strongly believes in a patient’s rights to make their own health care decisions and helps patients make those choices aligned with their values and preferences.

Craig has held several leadership positions in healthcare including the Chairman of the Maryland Health Care Commission, Chief Medical Officer of JenCare Senior Medical Center, a multi-state full risk group practice focused on Medicare Advantage patients, and Partner in McKinsey and Company’s Health Care Services and Systems Practice. He is currently on faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Nova Southeastern School of Medicine. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society.

Dr. Leah Weiss

Leah Weiss, Ph.D., MSW, Co-founder of Skylyte

Leah is a mental health expert at Stanford and co-founder of Skylyte; a company focused on building healthy teams in a hybrid work world. Dr. Weiss is the principal teacher and founding faculty for Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Program, conceived by the Dalai Lama. She is an expert on metrics-driven, behavior-change methods for cultivating resilience, belonging, and psychological safety at the team and organizational levels. Her acclaimed book, How We Work: Live Your Purpose, Reclaim Your Sanity, and Embrace the Daily Grind (HarperWave), has been translated into ten languages. Her work guides the mental health and well-being strategies of over 100 companies and has been covered by news outlets worldwide, including BBC, the New York Times, TED, the Financial Times, and the Harvard Business Review. Dr. Weiss coaches and trains the world’s most innovative leaders and forward-thinking companies.

Jerry Feist

Jerry Feist, Content & Customer Operations Coordinator at Skylyte

Jerry has always been passionate about mental health and well-being. While studying psychology at the University of Oregon, he became particularly interested in the science of chronic stress and burnout. Soon after graduating, he started working with Dr. Leah Weiss as a research intern at Skylyte and conducted extensive literature reviews on multi-modal methods for measuring burnout before transitioning into a full-time role in Content & Customer Operations. In this role, he has worked to prevent burnout and improve workplace well-being with teams at organizations such as Stanford Children’s Health and Genentech.

Dr. Tracy Paulino

Dr. Tracy Paulino, L.M.H.C., M.C.A.P., I.C.R.C.

Tracy Paulino is a therapist from Spanish River Counseling Center, a Gottman Institute trained professional, and the co-creator of GrowingCouples.com along with her husband, Arturo. Tracy is a Level III Gottman therapist, trained ACT, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and Certified Master’s Level Addiction Professional.