Tunisia Nelson
Tunisia Nelson, Founder of Fierce Interventions, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Doctor of Social Work (DSW) candidate with approximately 16 years of experience in social work and behavioral health. She began her career in group home settings supporting transitional age youth aging out of foster care, where she developed a deep passion for the work. Through this early experience, she identified critical gaps in services particularly the unmet intangible needs not always addressed through policy or funding structures such as belonging identity and community connection which ultimately shaped her systems level approach to practice and advocacy.
Throughout her career Tunisia has built a multi dimensional professional path spanning macro social work clinical services leadership and program development. She currently works with Riverside University Health System Behavioral Health where she focuses on macro level initiatives including workforce development staff recruitment and retention community engagement and cross sector collaboration. In addition she maintains a private clinical practice serving approximately six to ten clients weekly utilizing an eclectic evidence based therapeutic approach tailored to individual client needs. Her work is grounded in both direct service and systems transformation allowing her to bridge clinical insight with organizational and community impact.
In addition to her public sector and clinical work Tunisia is committed to transforming youth serving systems through experiential learning and engagement. Through Fierce Interventions she partners with organizations to create immersive training experiences that actively involve youth voices in shaping policy and practice addressing gaps in how services are delivered to transitional age youth. She is completing her Doctor of Social Work at California Baptist University and regularly engages in speaking training and community education to expand understanding of behavioral health careers and promote equity driven culturally responsive care across systems.
• Licensed Clinical Social Worker in CA and LA
• California Baptist University - DSW
• California State University, Long Beach - MSW, Social Work
• California State Polytechnic University-Pomona - BA, Psych
• Founder of Fierce Interventions
What do you attribute your success to?
I think I just attribute my success to this innate drive. I am really big on experiential learning and changing hearts, and I feel like I've just found an ability to do that in a space where I feel comfortable. I'm able to meet people where they're at, and we're able to build this beautiful relationship and this beautiful story. It's so amazing just to witness people recognizing things about themselves, and then taking it a step further, and wanting to better themselves, and actually doing it. I think that is what drives me, just seeing that it's always, every single day, it's possible for things to get better. Every single day, it's possible for a life to be changed.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Some of the best career advice that I've received is that you are your superpower. Although there can be a whole bunch of agencies, everybody's doing the same thing, but nobody is you. I think that's something that I've always taken to heart. Nobody can do that thing that you are called to do. They might do something similar, but they can't facilitate something the way that you would, they can't say things the way that you would. Just in a world where it's hard to kind of want to stand out, I think that that has held true, because essentially, we are all standing out in our own individual ways. And it's okay.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think the advice that I would give is to take up all the space that is offered to you. Take it all up. Just be present, always be willing to learn. And know that growth is gonna happen, and growth is gonna be hard sometimes. But we're here for a reason. We are here for a reason.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest challenge is not allowing the outside influence to dictate the way you feel about the work that you do. Obviously, the political climate has definitely posed some challenges for my field of work. Fortunately, I am already in the field, so I'm not feeling it as hard, but I can understand that people just entering into this field might be disheartened regarding some of the legislation and the barriers presented. But I just have to believe that at the end of the day, we are a community of people who want to be heard, who want to be seen. And so, I am able to, every single day, provide that space for people, and regardless of if a larger, broader community recognizes it or feels like that's important, to that individual, it is, and that's what kind of drives me.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are most important to me, both professional and personal, is humility. I just feel like everybody should have that quality. We should treat everybody the same, no matter their status, their title, the letters behind their name. I really feel like that goes a long way. I know in my profession, just recognizing people for who they are and what they bring to the table, despite anything that they have gone through, is such a powerful tool and medium just to solicit change, just to really touch somebody's heart. Obviously, being seen makes you feel like, okay, if you see me, I'm willing to do the work. Maybe initially I'm not willing to do the work for me, but being willing is a transferable skill. Other values that are important to me are just respect. I think respect in the honoring the dignity and worth of people. They kind of go hand in hand, but I think just being able to honor that we're all living in this space, living in these worlds, this system, and at the end of the day, just honoring the dignity and worth of people is the one thing that'll be, I think, the greatest catalyst for change. If we can get past this side, that side, the haves, the have-nots, like, at the end of the day, none of that really matters. If we can just honor the worth and dignity of people, then I think that'll be the biggest change that could ever happen here.