Sana Shtasel

Senior Advisor

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Senior Advisor to the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, Sana is an attorney and non-profit executive with more than three decades’ experience in non-profit leadership, policy advocacy, law, and public administration. She has led significant NGOs and served in senior positions in the US Congress, the Executive Branch, private law firms, and in her own management consulting firm: she has dedicated her career to a range of domestic and international social justice issues in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has led mission-driven organizations of all sizes and managed broad and diverse advocacy coalitions, with emphases on conflict resolution, foreign relations, appropriations, women’s rights, child welfare, and health policy. Her efforts have been acknowledged with numerous awards and academic fellowships. 

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Most notable of her senior appointed positions in federal and state executive and legislative branches are: Special Assistant to the Associate Attorney General and first Civil Liberties Coordinator for the Carter Department of Justice; General Counsel and Assistant Secretary for Federal Affairs for the Massachusetts State Executive Office of Transportation; and Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Women’s Issues to former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood. She has also directed federal relations/advocacy departments for three significant NGOs, including AARP. She proudly served as a US Delegate to the United Nations Mid-Decade Conference on Women, subsequent to her private sector women’s rights Supreme Court victory.

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Among other nonprofit leadership roles, she has served as President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland and as Executive Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace and Firefly Children’s Network. For the past 18 months, she has directed all Washington, DC policy and advocacy for the Multifaith Alliance, as well as served in strategic, managerial, and development roles. 

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Sana holds a BA from Cornell University; a JD from New York University; and an MPA from Harvard University.