Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery’s members of our Board of Directors are very pleased and proud to confer our annual awards to a stellar group of heroes in our rights, recovery, rehabilitation, equity and peer support movements. While Theresa Hall will receive her honor at our Annual Albany Legislative Day on February 9, 2027, we’ll be honoring the other awardees at our upcoming Annual Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Albany: Angela Cerio just before our Wednesday (September 23) 5pm dinner and the other awardees at 5pm on Thursday (September 24). Congratulations and great gratitude to our extraordinary 2026 awardees!
BRENDAN NUGENT EMPOWERMENT AWARD for their exemplary efforts in promoting and advancing the empowerment of their peers in New York State.
Elizabeth Breier
Throughout her career, Liz has been a steadfast advocate for recovery-oriented, person-centered systems that recognize people with lived experience as leaders, innovators, educators, and valued professionals. She has consistently championed the belief that lived experience is expertise and that peers are essential partners in designing, delivering, and improving behavioral health services. Liz’s leadership is grounded in respect, collaboration, and the fundamental belief that every person deserves the opportunity to define their own recovery journey and contribute their unique strengths and talents. She has worked tirelessly to expand opportunities for the peer workforce, creating pathways for peers to develop professionally, assume leadership roles, and influence the future of behavioral health services throughout New York State. She understands that meaningful systems transformation occurs when people with lived experience are not simply included but are trusted as equal partners in decision-making, policy development, and organizational leadership. She has inspired countless peers to pursue leadership opportunities, encouraged organizations to embrace recovery-oriented practices, and strengthened partnerships that continue to improve opportunities for people and communities across New York State.
Evangelist Theresa Hall
Theresa Hall is widely known for her passionate commitment to the dignity, rights and spiritual and mental health of New Yorkers in mental health recovery. She has touched the lives of thousands of attendees at Alliance events over the past 25 years, most notably for her inspirational leadership at the Alliance’s annual conference for her role at the Fashion Show and various presentations and at our Annual Legislative Day for her leadership at various Capital marches and meetings with state legislators. Her advocacy has been fueled by her and her families’ own lived experience with disability services and policies. She has long represented Alliance members in her work in supporting and advocating for justice involved individuals. Theresa’s powerful advocacy promoting recovery and community life been front and center in her testimony before the NYS Assembly and her appearances in several Alliance videos. She has played active roles on our Board, as a Long Island Regional Coordinator and on the Multicultural Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee.
SALLY ZINMAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for extraordinary lifetime of leadership in advancing the recovery and rights of people with mental health and trauma-related challenges across our nation.
Angela Maria Cerio
Angela Maria Cerio dedicated her life to ensuring that people with lived experience were treated with dignity, respect, and hope. She believed that recovery belonged to the individual and that every person deserved the opportunity to define their own life, pursue their own goals, and live with purpose. She understood that true peer support is rooted in compassion, mutual respect, self-determination, and the unwavering belief that people can and do recover. For decades, Angela stood beside people who had too often been overlooked, marginalized, or misunderstood. She never sought recognition for herself. Instead, she quietly devoted her life to lifting others. She trained future peer advocates, championed self-determination, and empowered countless individuals to discover their own voice and purpose.
They will remember her generous spirit, her warmth, her remarkable sense of humor, her curiosity, and her ability to make people feel seen, heard, and valued. The rights and peer movements in New York are stronger because Angela Cerio chose to dedicate her life to it.
Phillip T. Yanos
For more than two decades, Dr. Yanos has been an internationally respected leader whose scholarship has transformed how the behavioral health field understands recovery, self-stigma, identity, empowerment, and community inclusion. He has consistently bridged rigorous research with practical solutions that improve opportunities for people to pursue meaningful lives in their communities and is widely recognized for his groundbreaking work on the impact of stigma and identity in the recovery journey. His writing and research has challenged researchers, providers, policymakers, and advocates to recognize that recovery is rooted in hope, purpose, connection, and self-determination—not defined by a diagnosis. His work has helped reshape recovery-oriented practices by demonstrating how reducing self-stigma and fostering empowerment can expand opportunities for people to live, work, learn, and contribute in ways that are meaningful to them.
His work continues to influence policy, practice, education, and advocacy throughout New York State and across the nation. His enduring contributions have expanded opportunities for countless people to pursue lives of purpose, connection, and belonging.
Amy Brinkley
When I think about what this award represents – a lifetime of leadership advancing the recovery, dignity, and rights of people with mental health and trauma-related challenges I think about people who haven’t simply worked in this movement, but who have given a piece of themselves to it. Amy Brinkley is one of those people. Amy has spent her career making sure that lived experience isn’t something we just talk about. From her leadership in Indiana to her national work with NASMHPD, she has helped strengthen peer support, advance recovery-oriented systems, and remind policymakers and providers that the people most affected by our systems must be part of changing them. But those of us who know Amy know that her impact can’t be measured by positions, programs, or accomplishments alone. Amy leads with her heart. She brings her own lived experience openly and courageously into this work, and she has an extraordinary ability to connect with people or whether she’s sitting with someone who is struggling or sitting at a table with national leaders. Sally Zinman represented the kind of leadership that changed our movement by insisting that our voices matter and that people with lived experience have the right to determine the course of their own lives. I can’t think of a more fitting way to honor that legacy than by recognizing someone like Amy who continues to carry those values forward every single day.
FRANCES OLIVERO ADVOCACY AWARD for their inspiring community leadership and advocacy on behalf of New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities.
Regina Shoen
Regina (Gina) Shoen spent her life working to dismantle the stigmas that keep so many suffering in silence. Gina understood that mental health struggles can often feel isolating and overwhelming. She made it her mission to ensure that no one had to walk that path alone. Through her advocacy, she didn’t just speak about mental health; she spoke with those who were hurting, offering a rare blend of deep empathy and fierce determination. She championed the creation of safe spaces where people could share their stories without fear of judgment, building vital networks of mutual support.
Gina knew that awareness must always be paired with action. She fought for better resources, improved access to care, and a world that treats mental health with the exact same urgency as physical health. Even if other peers had given up on someone, she would challenge the idea that people couldn’t get better. While she took her work seriously, Gina often used gentle humor to uplift those she was supporting and disarmingly direct humor to get the attention of those with whom she disagreed.
Every time we check in on a struggling friend, fight for better mental health policies in our local communities or simply extend grace to ourselves on our hardest days, we keep Gina’s spirit alive. She planted seeds of compassion that will continue to grow, serving as a permanent reminder that healing is possible and that every single voice matters.
JASON BRODY FAITH AND FELLOWSHIP AWARD for their extraordinary kindness, caring and devotion to people within their community.
Jim Coyle
Jim Coyle achieved something most people don’t in a lifetime. He had a tangible positive impact on many, many lives. He helped people feel better about themselves and because of him, many came to know hope for the first time or to reclaim it. With the constant of his faith, encouragement, respect, support, humanity, love and unconditional acceptance, many returned to school or work, long after giving up that dream. Jim showed up Every Day For Everyone. He was always at the forefront of change. He received awards and commendations but remained always humble. To all those who worked with him at several recovery and rehabilitation focused innovative agencies, his legacy was inspiring others to think they could do it because they saw him do it. His legacy was wanting to change the world one step at a time. Your legacy is every life he touched.
Sara Taylor
Sara has spent most of her life developing educational platforms where local, statewide, and national leaders come together to talk about DEI, anti-racist practices, recovery-based housing services, leadership, faith-based practices, community engagement, and trauma-responsive family support. Throughout the past 20 years, Sara has provided thousands of providers the opportunity to connect, engage, debate, and grow together – through laughter, tears, and a great deal of love. With over 100 events during the past 20 years, Sara’s work has touched many hearts. Between her Women of Faith Prayer Retreats, Women of Color Summits (where brown and black women connect to speak about spiritual, political, socio-economic, and family issues), Mental Health Communities of Color Symposiums (where leaders from BIPOC communities connect to share mental Health education, wellness, safety practices, and recovery), Advocacy in Action Symposiums, and Peer Support Webinars and Summits, Sara is truly a powerhouse in the state of NY.
Michael Skinner
Since 1993, Michael’s straightforward uplifting story and songs of hope and healing have helped thousands of people throughout the country. He is an award-winning advocate and trauma-informed speaker who brings lived experience to education and community healing. He has spoken at the National Press Club, was a keynote presenter for a conference held by the United Nations was part of the groundbreaking Oprah Winfrey Shows that addressed the issues of sexual abuse of male children. His role as a consultant and trainer for SAMHSA, the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors has been instrumental in helping to shape the policy initiatives and directives for the delivery and implementation of trauma-informed care and services. Michael is the founder and director of the Surviving Spirit, a monthly newsletter and website sharing resources to help those affected by trauma, abuse, and mental health challenges. He is the author of The Lunchbox Theory, a memoir of survival, resilience, and hope.