Arlene Istar Lev

Lecturer
School of Social Welfare
Department: Social Welfare

Expertise:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people; families and communities, sexuality, relationships, parenting; adoption.

Campus phone: (518) 438-2222
Campus email: [email protected]

Biography:

Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev LCSW-R, CASAC, CST is a social worker, family therapist, educator, and activist who has been serving the LGBTQ community for over 30 years. She is the founder and Clinical Director of Choices Counseling and Consulting and TIGRIS: The Training Institute for Gender, Relationships, Identity, and Sexuality in Albany, N.Y. She is a Credentialed Alcoholism Counselor and a Certified Sex Therapist (ASSECT).

Lev is a part-time lecturer at the School of Social Welfare and is the project director of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Project. She is an international lecturer, trainer, and consultant on issues related to sex and gender, and has taught at Smith College School for Social Work, Empire College, Vermont College, Union Institute and University, Pink Therapy, and the California School of Professional Psychology.

Lev is the founder and board president for Rainbow Access Initiative, Inc., which provides low-cost therapy to LGBTQ individuals. She served as a committee member of World Professional Association for Transgender 7th revision of the Standards of Care which has revolutionized the medical and mental health treatment of transgender people worldwide.

She has authored numerous journal articles and authored three books: The Complete Lesbian and Gay Parenting Guide, Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and their Families (winner of the APA Division 44 Distinguished Book Award, 2006),and the forthcoming Families in Transition: Parent Perspectives on Raising Gender Diverse Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults (with Andrew Gottlieb, Ed).