Social workers are vital to any community, especially in areas where mental health disorders have been invisible killers for quite some time. Through education, awareness, implementation of programs and access to professional support, the silence that plague diagnoses is dwindling. It’s the unsung heroes, those focusing on the human side of healthcare, that are making communities around the world rethink about the kind of care they’re providing.

Colorado Mesa University Associate Professor of Social Work and Director of Master of Social Work Program Dr. Michelle Sunkel has nearly two decades of clinical experience in the social work sphere. She’s worked in the emergency room, forensics, has been in and out of the courts, jails and prisons. She has sat on ethical boards, served as an outpatient therapist and has been a longtime advocate for policy change around mental health practices. Today, she’s helping shape the healthcare apparatus, educating future social workers, and somehow, still finds time to work in the emergency room every month conducting psychiatric evaluations.