NASW Board of Directors
Director, Region I

Shanna T. Fishel, MEd, MSW, LICSW

Shanna Talli Fishel is the founder and clinician of You Got Choices, a private practice in Western Massachusetts serving LGBTQ+ individuals and people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid coverage. A committed advocate for healthcare access and clinician sustainability, they co-lead a Massachusetts behavioral health clinician network (MIAT) addressing systemic barriers in insurance-based mental healthcare.

After earning a Master of Education in Special Education from Lesley University, they taught in Boston Public Schools and alternative education settings. Volunteer work on the Planned Parenthood hotline motivated them to pursue advanced training in human sexuality at Haifa University in Israel, leading them to provide sexuality education and psychosexual counseling in school and community settings. They later earned a Master of Social Work from Smith College and completed a postgraduate fellowship through the Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Fishel has served on NASW-MA's Legislative Advocacy Committee, Racial Equity and Learning (REAL) Northampton, the Center for Human Development's Human Rights Committee, and as a trustee of a local nonprofit Jewish day school. Throughout their professional journey, Fishel has taken on roles as an outreach social worker, program manager, researcher, public speaker, grassroots organizer, and candidate for local elected office.