Oana

Hi, I’m Oana.

I studied Psychology and completed training in psychotherapy, but over time I moved away from the idea of practicing as a therapist. Before ending up in HR, I went through a few roles that confirmed I prefer working with people without carrying their emotional baggage: special education teacher for children on the autism spectrum, social media content moderator, and social worker.

I moved to Berlin in 2016, rather naïvely, for love — and I stayed for the same reason. Today, I work as an International HR Generalist at ZOI, and I like to think I’ve landed in a place where organizational culture exists beyond PowerPoint presentations. I joined DCB in the summer of 2025, drawn by the people in the association and by the desire to contribute to the community I am part of. For me, DCB is also a place where I learn what it means to build projects from idea to implementation, secure resources, and collaborate with people who bring different ideas and motivations to the table.

Within DCB, I organize the monthly DCB Book Club Meetup, a book club with no mandatory reading list, where everyone brings the books and ideas that have made them think. For me, reading is one of the best ways to understand people and their perspectives. I continue to read about psychology and psychotherapy, especially psychoanalysis, perception, and the mechanisms behind decision-making. This is also where my desire to discuss books and ideas in my native language comes from.

When I’m not reading, you can usually find me dancing salsa, hiking (if possible), or cycling around Berlin on a sunny day.