Justin Lynn

Justin Lynn (born July 30, 1986), also known as JVakarian, is an American Twitch streamer, YouTuber, and People Operations Consultant. Prior to streaming on Twitch, he worked across multiple roles in HR and People Operations at companies like Universal Hydrogen, Second Order Effects, SpaceX, and others. He currently covers a variety of topics on Twitch, where he streams playing video games and discusses the current social and political climate.
==Early life==
Justin Lynn was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. As a "self-proclaimed nerd" since he first gained access to computers as a child, Justin says he was bullied during grade school and high school for his interests in computers and gaming.
After high school, Justin attended University of Kansas, where he graduated with a dual-Bachelor's degrees in Applied Behavioral Science and Psychology. He then moved to California to attend Cal State Fullerton, where he graduated with a Master's degree in Research Psychology with a focus on Evolutionary Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and Multivariate Statistics.
==Career==
===Academia===
Throughout his undergraduate and graduate work, Justin was a member of multiple research groups with researchers across KU, CSUF, UCLA, and UBC, where he had multiple publications in magazines and peer-reviewed research journals published about his work, including Psychology Today, The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Evolutionary Psychological Science, and the Scientific Study of Literature.
In 2011, Justin began working with the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at Cal State Fullerton as a Research Project Manager, where he managed study design, data collection, and statistical analyses for grant-funded research projects. The next year, he began managing the Reproductive Ecology Lab, extending hormone research protocols and methods across multiple studies with researchers in Biology, Anthropology, Psychology, & Philosophy departments. In 2013, he also was nominated to become a Coordinator for the annual C-WESS (California Workshop on Evolutionary Social Science) conference —the first non-PhD member to do so— which he continued through 2017.
===Industry===
After managing the Reproductive Ecology Lab at Cal State Fullerton for two years, Justin began working formally across HR and People Operations, starting as a Leadership Development & Recruitment Specialist with The First String Healthcare (acquired by AMN Healthcare in 2015). He then went on to serve as a Search Consultant with KellyOCG from 2016-2018, a Technical Recruiter with SpaceX from 2018-2019, and then joined a startup founded by other former SpaceX employees, Second Order Effects, where he was the first HR/People Operations employee. After three years of leading, building, and serving the People team at Second Order Effects, he joined Universal Hydrogen as the Global Director of People Operations, managing all aspects of their People teams across the US, France, Canada, and Denmark. He was also invited to join the Forbes Human Resources Council in March 2022, where he remains an active member.
Throughout his career, Justin has given multiple talks on a variety of subjects, including performing quantitative analyses with big data, building sustainable workplaces, and conducting technical interviews. He has also hosted numerous technical sessions with students and professionals interested in engineering.
===Streaming===
Justin started streaming as JVakarian on Twitch in September 2023 and uploading his videos to his YouTube channel of the same name (JVakarian) at the same time.
==Political views==
Justin has identified as a progressive, leftist, a registered Democrat, and supporter of democratic socialism. He has advocated in favor of universal health care, LGBTQIA+ rights, workplace democracy, and universal background checks; he has advocated against war, American imperialism, racism, white supremacy, and fascism.
Justin supported the presidential primary campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, as well as Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020. Although he is currently registered as a Democrat, he has been an outspoken critic of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and has supported many views of Democratic Socialists. He also shared media from Senator Sanders opposing Trump's policies and wanting to hold Trump accountable for his policy comments, going as far back as 2017, and has been a major critic of racism, those who perpetuate negative and offensive stereotypes, and negative attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ members.
==Personal life==
Justin was born and raised in Kansas City, KS as a Catholic, although he now identifies as an Atheist. Has has two brothers and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
In July 2009, prior to moving to California, Justin adopted a Lynx-Point Siamese cat (Jackson) which he has featured on his Twitch channel (in his logo, banner, and during streams) since his very first stream in September 2023.
Category:1986 births
Category:People from Kansas City
Category:American people
Category:University of Kansas alumni
Category:Twitch (service) streamers
Category:YouTubers