About Melissa DeCapua
Introduction
Hi, I’m Melissa DeCapua. I write to examine systems of power. My work draws from my professional background in psychiatry and big tech, as well as my personal experience growing up Catholic in the Bible Belt. I am currently drafting a historical novel set in 1902 Italy that interrogates the myth of virgin martyr Saint Maria Goretti. Through the eyes of a Catholic nurse, we witness the events following 11-year-old Maria’s attempted rape and murder and how moral, civic, and economic institutions collaborated to transform a story of violence into a disciplinary parable for girls.
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Writing & Projects
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Backstory
My work sits at the intersection of technology, mental health, and social systems. Across each chapter of my career, from psychiatric nursing to product leadership in tech, I’ve been interested in how institutions shape human behavior and how we can design better systems for the people they serve.
Big Tech
I have spent the past decade working in the technology industry as a researcher and product manager applying my knowledge of human behavior to building useful and usable experiences. I am currently at Microsoft helping run a program that incorporates feedback from Microsoft’s top strategic accounts into Copilot’s design. In the past, I’ve helped build software across healthcare, cybersecurity, and web3, including the pilot of Starbuck’s NFT loyalty program Odyssey & the AI Art Competition site Hive3. For more on this, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Psychiatry
I have a doctorate degree in psychiatric nursing and began my career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner diagnosing and treating mental illness. In these roles, I witnessed how entrenched hierarchies, and outdated systems often serve those at the top, while undermining the well-being of the very people they are meant to support. So, I picked up my pen (keyboard) and wrote about it. In 2016, I started a nurse practitioner blog, writing 100+ articles on the healthcare system and advocating for pro-nurse practitioner legislation. Eventually, Microsoft sponsored my blog, leading to my first job in Big Tech.
Lived Experience
I was born in the United States and raised Catholic in a conservative Italian family. I moved often, mostly across the Midwest and Bible Belt, attending 6 different schools before 8th grade. Determined to attend college, an opportunity my mom and her mom didn’t have, I almost joined the Army, when thankfully an art scholarship came through. Today, these experiences remind me that what feels personal (opportunity, safety, joy) is actually structural: shaped by systems optimized (at best) to maintain and (at worst) to expand the power of a few.
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Values
Curiosity
to wonder, to ask questions, and to explore myself, others, and the world around me.
Imagination
to envision alternatives and possibilities beyond the given.
Dignity
to recognize the inherent worth of every person and of our shared planet.
Engagement
to be an active, intentional participant in meaningful ventures.
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Let it not be imagined, however, that I consider myself competent to reform the errors and abuses of society, but only that I would fain contribute my humble quota towards so good an aim.
Anne Brontë · 1848