AU-NYC to hold commencement ceremonies for Class of 2023

The ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. in the Queensborough Performing Arts Center, Queensborough Community College. Graduates from the AU-NYC program have earned master’s degrees in School and Mental Health Counseling and Public Administration or completed Advanced Certification programs in Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling, at Alfred University’s satellite campuses in New York City.

Cerio retires this month (May 2023) following a 30-plus year career at Alfred University as a faculty member and administrator. He began his career at Alfred in 1991 as an assistant professor in what was then the Division of School Psychology (now the Division of Counseling and School Psychology) and was promoted through the ranks to full professor.

While serving as a faculty member, Cerio became the director of the Center for Rural School Psychology (1992-2008) and later the director of the Child and Family Services Center (1996-2007). In 2000 he was appointed chair of the Division of School Psychology, a position he held for seven years. While guiding the master’s and newly accredited doctoral programs in school psychology, Cerio and his co-authors secured an impressive $4,021,000 in grant funding during an eight-year period from 2000-2008. This funding was secured from diverse sources including The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and New York State.

Shortly before the completion of his term as division chair, Jay began the development of what would be Alfred University’s first NYC-based graduate program and assumed the directorship of the fledgling AU Downstate School Counseling program in 2005. The program grew to become AUNY and the University’s School of Graduate and Continuing Studies.

Cerio was appointed director of Downstate Graduate Programs in 2008. By 2015, Jay and his team had expanded the NYC-metro area degree offerings to the point where, with the addition of the on-campus counseling and psychology programs (formerly the College of Professional Studies), a new school within the university — School of Graduate and Continuing Studies — was formed. Cerio was appointed the first Dean of the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies in 2015 and served in that capacity before stepping down in July 2022.