Sheila Shankar, LSW

Sheila Shankar, LSW (she/her) is a therapist and social work PhD student at the University of Chicago. Sheila’s research, teaching, and social work practice are rooted in intersectional feminist and transformative justice principles. She uses qualitative research methods to examine how marginalized mothers navigate experiences of gender- and state-based violence, in addition to their practices of care, healing, and accountability. Sheila is a member of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and works as a therapist using psychodynamic and somatic approaches to promote healing justice. Sheila is committed to research-policy-practice collaborations and works as a research consultant on local and national initiatives to promote systems change for families involved in court-mandated supervised visitation programs. Sheila’s work has been funded by the Pozen Center for Human Rights, the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality, and the Crown Family School Doctoral Dissertation Grant.