Anna Pagnelli
Candidate Statement

My name is Anna Paganelli (she/they). I am currently the chair of the State CAMFT legislative committee and am running for one of the director-at-large positions because I appreciate and want to be part of the work State CAMFT is doing to improve our jobs and our license, to diversify our ranks, and to support mental health in California.

I got involved with CAMFT at the local level in 2005 as the prelicensed representative on the Santa Cruz chapter board and later became the chapter president. In those years, we increased membership and involvement, overhauled and updated the bylaws, put on numerous events and, as a smaller but very active chapter, worked in conjunction with other mental health providers in our area to strengthen the clinical support for our community. As we were overrepresented by practitioners in private practice, we worked on becoming a better organization for those in public practice as well.

In working with CAMFT, I’ve focused on the intersection of public policy and mental health and on legislation related to our licenses. I was on the final Washington, DC, trip before the pandemic, meeting with local and state representatives, and have been a team lead on the Sacramento trips to help lawmakers become more aware of the huge role of MFTs in California’s mental health world and to promote bills that CAMFT is behind. I have testified on behalf of CAMFT in front of state legislative committees about bills that protect us as providers and about the impact of particular laws and policies on mental health.

Some of the goals I have for the role on the State board:

Connecting us. We need more connection between all of us.

• Continue to strengthen the license through CAMFT’s involvement in regulations with the BBS and others, including license portability, ensuring that MFTs are included as mental health providers in legislation, and raising awareness of MFTs.
• Focus on ways CAMFT can help support us in bettering our profession, whether through working to raise reimbursement rates, increasing access to the profession so that our ranks better match California’s demographics, or through helping make it easier for clinicians to adopt secure technology that enhances our work.
• Draw on the role of CAMFT and MFTs as sources of expertise about the mental health impacts on people of policies, in part to raise awareness of the expertise that comes with our license and in part to work alongside other clinical groups like the APA to educate about, among other critical topics, the generational impact on kids of being afraid of losing parents to ICE actions or about the data on the positive mental health impacts of gender-appropriate care.

I am both focused and flexible. I like working with others, crossing boundaries, and believe we do better when more people feel comfortable participating and talking. I’m excited about the State board and want to work within CAMFT to help improve our jobs, our work lives, and our clients’ lives.

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