Shabel is a staff attorney at the Innocence Project and first joined the organization as a post-conviction litigation fellow. Prior to joining the Innocence Project, she worked as a staff attorney with the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) at Brooklyn Defender Services, which is the first and largest public defender program in the country offering universal representation for low-income immigrants that are detained under ICE custody and facing deportation.

Shabel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019, obtaining both a Juris Doctor and a Master of Science in social policy. She was part of the inaugural class of the Black Defender Leadership Institute, which trains emerging Black advocates and supports them in becoming the next generation of leaders who are equipped to dismantle systems of racialized oppression.