Careen Marie Rizzo Mayer

Mayer—Careen Marie Rizzo Mayer, 77, on February 27, 2017, at her home in Annapolis, Md., of natural causes. Careen was born on April 28, 1939, in Summit, N.J., to Edythe Ayrault and Henrique Luis Rizzo. Growing up in New Jersey, Florida, and Brazil, she earned a bachelor’s in psychology from University of Maryland in 1975. In Baltimore she worked for American Friends Service Committee’s Mid-Atlantic Region in 1982–1990. She was married to Joseph Mayer until their divorce in 1989. After earning a master’s in mediation and conflict resolution from Antioch College in 1992, she directed the community outreach programs at Sheppard Pratt Hospital, a mental hospital, leading programs on media literacy and violence prevention for youth and managing 50 professional mediators serving the Baltimore city courts and local families.

A longtime Quaker and member of Annapolis (Md.) Meeting, Careen gave the Carey Memorial lecture at Baltimore Yearly Meeting annual sessions in 1993. In Annapolis Meeting she was often the person who saw through the fog to the basic issues of love and compassion for all. She served on several committees, sometimes challenging herself to serve on those for which she had the least affinity, adding a spiritual perspective. She strongly supported the meeting’s solar panels and other environmental activities, represented the meeting in an interfaith environmental organization, and frequently worked with the children in First-day school.

Respected for her wisdom and universally loved, at her retirement party from Sheppard Pratt in 2005, one speaker remarked that Careen had changed the culture of the city of Baltimore. She continued the teaching of teachers that she had begun in 1992 at Goucher College and Notre Dame of Maryland University (formerly the College of Notre Dame of Maryland) until two months before her passing.

Careen is survived by her children, Dana Mayer (Steve Cohen), Eric Mayer (Deanna), and Andrea Mayer (Robert Emrich); and four grandchildren.

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