Ellen Petry Leanse
She was employed by Google from 2008 through 2010 and created a social list-making app Lists by 222do for the initial launch of the Facebook development platform (2007).
Her father, John Gerald Petry, was a WWII veteran and mechanical engineer who held several patents for automotive lift technology.
In her nine years at Apple Leanse served on the Macintosh launch team (1984) and led the company's pioneering work in creating online communities.
Her early work connected her with technology influencers including NASA's David Lavery, the Boston Computer Society's Jonathan Rotenberg, and the Berkeley Macintosh User Group's Raines Cohen and Reese Jones.
Active participants included NASA's David Lavery, the Boston Computer Society's Jonathan Rotenberg, and the Berkeley Macintosh User Group's Raines Cohen and Reese Jones.
Furthermore, as Macintosh users sought more direct means of learning about innovations and capabilities of the Mac and its software (in 1985, standards for customer support depended primarily on written/mailed correspondence) Macintosh users began to ask Apple and software providers for faster access to technical and usability information, as well as upgrades.
The organization successfully encouraged Apple to pursue early internet technology such as bulletin board systems and ARPANET.
Leanse's work in the UGC guided her to establish Apple's first connection with users via the early roots of the web – ARPANET, The WELL, Bulletin board systems, etc.
In 2013 Leanse joined Stanford University's Continuing Studies faculty to teach the neuroscience of innovation through on-campus and online courses.
Her articles have been globally syndicated, receiving up to 8 million views and guiding readers everywhere to new levels of self-awareness and empowerment.
Her book The Happiness Hack, published by Sourcebooks in 2017, explores concepts of attention, connection, and life satisfaction through perspectives on applied neuroscience.
The book discusses various ideas and solutions that are rooted in neuroscience, examining the role of the brain in creating our point of view and how it affects our focus, purpose, and the achievement of true satisfaction, and how opening to new possibilities of thinking differently can help an individual "hack into happiness".
By simplifying basic concepts of neuroscience, The Happiness Hack offers insights into stress, distraction, tech addiction, and a sense of disconnection in ways that let readers identify common mental tendencies – and guide the brain toward alternate paths.
She also acknowledges the work of Stanford researcher and neuroanatomist Sarah Eagleman[16] Archived 2018-12-05 at the Wayback Machine, who provided scientific review on the book.
The Happiness Hack launched at a Kepler's Literary Foundation event to a live audience and global livestream.
