Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Angela Marie Cerio
The Alliance for Rights and Recovery joins Angela Cerio’s family, friends, colleagues, and the broader peer and recovery community in celebrating the life of a remarkable leader whose advocacy, humor, compassion, and fierce commitment to dignity touched countless lives.
Angela was a pioneering leader in New York’s Mental Health Peer Advocacy movement. Drawing on her own lived experience, she dedicated decades of her life to helping people find dignity, community, recovery, and meaningful choice in the systems intended to support them. Her work included helping to found the Staten Island Sky Light Center Clubhouse, directing PALS (Peer Advocates Linking Services), serving as the first funded peer-advocacy program in New York City, and helping shape the peer-support movement through training, advocacy, and leadership. Her family remembers someone who was also deeply curious, funny, creative, outspoken, and always willing to challenge the status quo.
A formal virtual memorial celebrating Angela’s life and legacy will be held this fall, with the date and time to be announced. Everyone whose life Angela touched is invited to be part of this celebration. Those wishing to contribute a scheduled tribute, including a remembrance, poem, song, artwork, or other reflection, are asked to contact Lauren Tenney by August 31, 2026. Tributes will be shared during the memorial and recorded for inclusion in a lasting memorial tribute video. The event will also include an open remembrance period where attendees can share memories informally.
We encourage our community to share this announcement widely so that the many people who knew, worked alongside, learned from, advocated with, and loved Angela have an opportunity to participate. Angela helped build a movement grounded in peace, love, community, dignity, and the belief that people should have the power to direct their own lives and recovery. We look forward to coming together to celebrate her extraordinary life and ensure that her spirit and contributions continue to inspire our movement for years to come.
See below or the attached flyer for more information, including contact for Lauren Tenney.
