AASECT Regional Representatives hold an elected position to represent members' interests in the organization and foster connections within the region.

Western Regional Representative

Andrea L. Mize, LCSW (she/her)
WesternRep@aasect.org
Western Region Area: MT, CO, WY, AZ, UT, NV, ID, NM, AK, WA, OR, CA, HI

Andrea Mize is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and sex therapist with a focus on sexual and gender identity affirmation and discovery in adults throughout Oregon and California. Andrea is based in Portland, OR, and incorporates anti-racist and social justice concepts into her work. One of her areas of interest is how queer invisibility and ability/disability impact sexual health and pleasure. She has worked in a variety of settings including residential, community mental health, and private practice all of which have contributed to her greater humility towards others and the right of all humans to a personal expression and experience of sexuality as they define it. Andrea completed undergraduate training in Psychology in 1995 at the University of Akron in Ohio, her Master's in Social Work in 2013 at Smith College School for Social Work in Massachusetts, and the Holistic Sex Therapy Training Program at the Institute for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment in 2022 in pursuit of sex therapy certification. She is proud to be a lifelong learner and a high consumer of clinical education.

Mid-Continent Regional Representative

Rafaella Smith-Fiallo, LCSW, CSE, CTT (she/her)
MidContinentRep@aasect.org
Mid Continent Area: OH, KY, TN, AL, MS, LA, AR, MO, IN, IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK TX.

Rafaella Smith-Fiallo is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Sexuality Educator, and Certified Trauma Therapist. She is the founder of Healing Exchange LLC, a multi-state, education and mental health private practice committed to providing sex-positive, trauma-informed, pleasure-centered, and inclusive education, therapy, and professional development. She also co-founded Afrosexology, a sex education business centering on the pleasure, empowerment, and liberation of Black people.

Her work has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Teen Vogue. She has a passion for mentorship and has been the 2019 Missouri Section Head, a graduate academic advisor from 2017 to 2020, and more recently, a clinical supervisor. Rafaella has two mottos that drive her practice and personal life, “You deserve peace and pleasure in all of your relationships, especially the one with yourself,” and “If you want things to be different, you have to do things differently.” With that said, she is committed to engaging in and creating radical change and community liberation through centering pleasure politics.

Eastern Regional Representative

Lorelei “Lo” Sharkey, CSE (she/her)
EasternRep@aasect.org
Eastern Region Area: ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI, NY, PA, MD, WV, VA, DE, DC, NJ, NC, SC, GA, FL.

Lo Sharkey, an AASECT-CSE, has spent 25 years as a sex-&-relationship writer/educator. She has co-authored eight books, penned columns for New York and The Guardian, written features for publications like Glamour and Men’s Journal, toured the country for NARAL Pro-Choice America, presented at colleges (e.g. Colgate, Williams), been profiled in Time, appeared on Oprah, and co-hosted a ten-episode television series in the UK — all as an expert in the field.

Lo graduated cum laude from Colgate and completed the holistic certification program at ISEE. She founded TheButterflyAcademy.com, a relational education organization based in NY’s Hudson/Mahicannituck Valley that is dedicated to empowering youth and their caregivers around the realities of healthy relationships and sexuality with accurate information and age-appropriate honesty via in-person and online workshops (offered on a sliding scale). She is also ISEE’s dedicated paper grader and occasional SAR assistant, the sex educator for a local Montessori school, and the private tutor of a neurodivergent client interested in learning more about sex.

International Regional Representative

Rachael E. Gibson, PhD, MPH, MS, MEd, AASECT (she/her/ella)
InternationalRep@aasect.org
International Region Area: All US territories and other countries

Dr. Rachael Gibson is an AASECT Certified Sex Educator based in Miami, Florida and Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Gibson has taught comprehensive sexuality education all over the U.S. and the world and has over 20 years of experience in the health and sexuality education field. She is currently the chair of the SHAPE America National Health Education Council and has an ongoing research project in partnership with the University of Western Cape and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Dr. Gibson also spent 17 years as a secondary health education teacher in New York City and Long Beach, CA. In addition, she is an adjunct professor in Widener University's Center for Human Sexuality Studies. Dr. Gibson's research examines the interactions between teacher and learner identities, offering recommendations for pre and in-service teacher training that includes strategies for meeting the perceptions of students in effective and culturally responsive ways.

Vice President of Membership

Tanya Bass, PhD, MS, MEd, CHES®, CSE (She/her)
vpmembership@aasect.org

Tanya Bass oversees AASECT Regional Representatives as our VP of Membership. She is an award-winning sexuality educator and the "Foundress" of the North Carolina Sexual Health Conference (NCSEXCON), a conference that provides opportunities for agencies and individuals to share information, strategies, and best practices around sexual health across the lifespan. Dr. Bass is an alumna of North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU) Department of Public Health Education, where she has served as an adjunct instructor for several years and is currently the lead instructor for Human Sexuality. She completed her PhD in Education at Widener University in the Center for Human Sexuality Studies. Dr. Bass remains committed to seeking professional development and is a member of the NC Society for Public Health Educators, the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WoCSHN), the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians (ABSC), and the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator (CSE). Tanya is a current member of the editorial board for the American Journal of Sexuality Education.