Shelley Hitzel, LMSW

Child Advocacy Center- Executive Director, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center/Child Advocacy Center of Niagara; Independent Contractor, Institute on Trauma and Trauma Informed Care, University at Buffalo, Buffalo Center for Social Research

Shelley Hitzel is a licensed master social worker, who holds a BA in Psychology with a Criminal Justice minor from Daemen College where her thesis focused on the relationship between emotional intelligence and perpetration of obsessive relational intrusions. In 2012 Shelley completed the University at Buffalo’s Trauma Counseling Certificate Program. She has been an employee of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center since 2008, beginning her career in inpatient behavioral health and the psychiatric emergency room. In 2010 she transitioned to the Child Advocacy Center of Niagara (CAC), a department of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, where she has held a number of advocate roles, becoming Executive Director of the agency in 2020.  At the CAC she works alongside a multidisciplinary team providing investigative and support services to both child and adult survivors of trauma. Since 2015 she has been on staff as an independent consultant with the Institute on Trauma and Trauma Informed Care where she serves as the Project Coordinator for SAMHSA’s How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Response. Shelley has a passion for improving direct service delivery by increasing the knowledge and application of trauma informed care amongst agencies and professionals providing services to trauma survivors.