04/01/2026
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
After four decades of pioneering leadership in advancing innovative peer support initiatives, Ellen Healion will be retiring from her role as Director of Peer Bridging and Technical Assistance at the Alliance.
Ellen’s commitment to supporting the recovery and community success of countless individuals across New York and nationally began with her founding one of the nation’s premiere peer-run agencies, Hands Across Long Island (HALI) in 1988. Under her leadership, HALI created one of the nation’s first forensic peer bridger programs, supporting people to make a successful transition from Sing Sing prison to communities in New York City and Long Island. She created a number of housing and support programs on Long Island, most notably one of the first mobile shower initiatives.
Ellen went on to create several courses that aided people to become Certified Peer Specialists in conjunction with New York’s Academy of Peer Services.
Over the 8 years she served as Director of Peer Bridger Services and Technical Assistance at the Alliance, Ellen built on the Peer Bridger model that the Alliance created in 1994 to create state-of-the-art programs working out of 5 New York state psychiatric hospitals and used that expertise to provide expert technical assistance in a number of states, including Mississippi, Washington, Ohio, and Kentucky.
Ellen’s very personal commitment to the people she has supervised or supported and her particular expertise in the areas of supervision, ethics and boundaries will leave a lasting mark on our organization and the field. She has been a central member of our leadership team and we will miss her mightily.
