Alumna Spotlight: Erika Cedrone '92

A few hours before she is set to speak to the Class of 2025 in the Mercy Auditorium, Erika Cedrone ’92 takes her two daughters on a tour of her old stomping grounds on Randolph Road.  

One minute, she is in the Chapel, another she is peeking into a classroom.

It has been over 30 years since Cedrone graduated from Mercy High School, and 17 years since she left the life of a high school Spanish teacher to explore her faith and find a real vocation, but it is clear, Cedrone feels at home in a school.

What’s the adage?

You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can’t take the school out of the teacher?  

We changed the phrase a bit, but it fits for Cedrone.

Only a few minutes after meeting her, it becomes crystal clear that Cedrone is an educator, and someone who is comfortable in a place of learning. However, over a decade ago, Cedrone left the world of high school for a chance to explore her faith in a new way, first as a director with the Catholic Schools Foundation, and later as an Assistant Vice President of Mission at Catholic Extension,  a non-profit-based out of Chicago. 

Yet, she still brings that leadership and educator-vibe to her new role. 

On Tuesday, April 22, Cedrone visited Mercy High School to speak to the senior class about her fascinating journey from teaching Spanish to helping communities most in need.

"It is not really mission work, it is work with a mission," Cedrone said. "All these ministries have a mission." 

As part of our new Alumnae Speaker series, which Coordinator of Alumnae Engagement Molly Ruder Zarnick '05 has been leading, Cedrone spent 45 minutes at the end of the day, sharing her story and how it could help influence our seniors on their own career paths and  faith journeys. And she did it through a captivating presentation on mission work and everything it encompasses. And Cedrone is well-versed in the topic. 

"I love connecting people through giving and that there is more out there than just [them]," Cedrone said. 

With Catholic Extension, Cedrone has been busy working to empower young women with several programs, but she has also targeted ways to bring different orders of Sisters across the border to the U.S.; helped with Prison and Migrant Ministry programs; assisted Restorative Justice Programs; and worked with the Diocese of Boston on increasing the Hispanic enrollment in Boston Schools. 

For Cedrone, who also loved teaching, the opportunity to give back and explore her faith through all these programs has brought out the best parts of her, and that is obvious throughout the talk.

Moving back and forth in front of the seniors, Cedrone is animated and engaging, and her presentation is riveting. As she moves from one topic to the next, powerpoint slides following her on the big screen on the stage, Cedrone does her best to connect everything back to the students and their lives. And the impact is felt as the students later ask about internship opportunities and other career paths. 

"Every single person in this room can create that moment with someone else," Cedrone said. 

However, it is also not just the students, who have been impacted. 

Cedrone has taken her daughters on several of the trips so they can see the experiences and learn from them as well. 

"It is important to see the reality, you see families living in trailer parks that have seven, eight, nine kids shoved into one trailer," Cedrone said. "That is reality for that family." 

At one point, she stops to show a church in Puerto Rico that she helped repair with other women. 

"That is sort of my legacy," Cedrone said. 

Later in her speech, she talks about her work in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School. 

"We went there and said 'how we can help, what can we do,'" Cedrone said. 

What Catholic Extension ended up doing was a summer camp for the students that survived. 

"We had this idea of bringing them back into something that was like a classroom and have a fun camp and let them enjoy themselves," Cedrone said. 

From that experience, Cedrone and her group then paid for them to go to a Catholic School, and helped them switch to a smaller new school. They also paid for counselors to help the students. 

"What we as Catholics do is respond to a need," Cedrone said. "It is all about really listening to the needs that and responding to them." 

Cedrone's presentation is peppered with different examples of what it means to be a true Catholic. 

Through her time with Catholic Extension, Cedrone has established not only her company's values and legacy, but her own. And she always responded. 

As a Mercy community, we are so honored to highlight Cedrone's legacy and her values. 

Thank you, Erika. 

You're a true Woman of Mercy.