[1][2] As a licensed clinical social worker, he offered outpatient mental health services in Chelsea in New York City.
He also taught at Hunter College from 1991 to 2001, and from 2002 until his retirement in 2006 he served on the faculty of the Columbia University School of Social Work.
At the time of his death from pancreatic cancer in Manhattan in June 2008, his brother Jeffrey Shernoff told The New York Times that he found it ironic that after years of living with HIV infection, "He died of pancreatic cancer, which may not even be related.
"[1] Shernoff was an early volunteer for Gay Men's Health Crisis and became one of the first social workers in the United States to address AIDS in a private psychotherapy practice.
The workshop, intended to teach gay men how to continue to engage in sexual activity without risking HIV transmission, was eventually presented in cities across North America.