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SERLC Quarterly Newsletter Winter 2025-26
Meet our Peer Supporters!
Ryan Markley
(She/They
SERLC Program Coordinator
Ryan has been with the SERLC for 2 years and is a trauma survivor, as well as a survivor of institutionalized psychiatric violence. She has over 45 years lived experience utilizing mental health services. Grounded in her personal wellness journey, Ryan brings a deep commitment to the peer movement and the advancement of lived experience professions.
Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Ryan earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2001. The religious trauma she experienced growing up in the deep south has influenced her approach to spiritual wellness, and the many natural disasters she witnessed have deepened her awareness of community interdependence, and the importance of preparing for and healing from collective crises. Ryan is a single mother to a compassionate and empathetic 19-year-old daughter. In 2016, Ryan and her daughter relocated to Massachusetts.
Ryan began her peer specialist journey by facilitating groups for the Kiva Centers and received her Massachusetts Peer Specialist Certification in 2017. She is also certified in Older Adult Peer Support, Intentional Peer Support, Digital Peer Support, Hearing Voices, and Alternatives to Suicide, among others. She was in the first Certified Peer Trauma Guide Training cohort in Massachusetts in 2021. Ryan has five years’ experience working on an ACCS Integrated Team, where she served on the peer training team, DEI Committee, and led the ACCS LGBTQIA+ activities in North Worcester County. Ryan is also a peer researcher, advancing inclusive models of peer support that honor resilience, creativity, and community belonging, and she frequently seeks out opportunities to mentor emerging peer supporters. As a small business owner since 2022 of Ryan Markley Intuitive Art, she is passionate about the arts and its ability to foster healing, resilience, and post-traumatic growth.
Today, as Program Coordinator for the SERLC, Ryan works remotely and is tasked with furthering the SERLC’s CAIRE Initiative, maintaining the SERLC’s online presence, facilitating the volunteer committees, administering the annual QI survey, and creating the quarterly newsletter. She also supports inclusive and collaborative activities, projects, and partnerships within the SERLC where learning, healing and connection can thrive for both community members and SERLC employees alike.
Leondina Dankese
(She/Her/Hers)
Community Connector, Hyannis RCC
SERLC Peer Community Facilitator
Hi! My name is Leondina ‘Lana’ Dankese, and I have always been passionate about mental health and recovery from as soon as I started walking. I grew up in a family with a long line of military history and saw the effects of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder first-hand with the trauma of others that surrounded me. My parents worked for a VA Medical Center and that was basically my home away from home. I remember hours as a child spent playing board games with veterans who were in the nursing home unit my mother worked on, and having fun with them. However, as I got older, I saw more and more people afflicted with trauma. I would sit with dying veterans and watch over them when they needed comfort and felt their pain.
Instead of going to college, my mother needed my care since she was in the early stages of her vascular dementia. I took care of my mother for six years as well as working in the medical and mental health field. I have worked for MGH, Lahey Beth Israel, Tufts, and BMC as well as Vinfen. I planned on serving in the Air Force but then the Covid-19 Pandemic started and I remained in the medical field.
Seeing so many people need support with their mental health and recovery, I realized that while I could not serve my country one way, seeing the world around me I realized that what I truly want to do is help people. That I could serve the people around me instead. What makes me happiest is seeing other people happy. I feel so much empathy for others and feeling that has opened my eyes to my true calling; serving the people we serve.
It is with both sadness and hope that I share my transition from the Hyannis RCC to ACCS. Leaving the RCC brings me great sadness, as this community has been such a meaningful part of my journey. At the same time, I hold hope that this is not a goodbye, but rather a shift in how I may return to the RCC in a different capacity in the future. I will still be working with the SERLC in my role as a BMC Peer Community Facilitator, and I look forward to continuing to support and connect with our broader community in this way. Together, we have created something truly special, and I carry that spirit with me as I move forward. Thank you for the support, collaboration, and compassion that have defined my time here.