Alicia M. Rizzo had a passion for teaching. She persevered as principal of Lynnwood Elementary School despite having cancer.

“A strong and fearless leader” is how her family describes her.

“A strong advocate for children and an exceptional educator” is how the Guilderland schools superintendent describes her.

Ms. Rizzo died on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, “in the comfort of her home surrounded by loving family and friends after a long and hard-fought battle with metastatic breast cancer,” her family wrote in a tribute. She was 54.

She was born in Albany on Feb. 19, 1969 to John McLean and Virginia McLean. Ms. Rizzo described herself as coming from “a service-oriented family.” Her father worked for the state and her mother for the county; Rizzo was the oldest of their three daughters.

Ms. Rizzo wanted to be an elementary school teacher since she was 7 years old, she told The Enterprise in 2010 on the night the Guilderland School Board unanimously chose her to be Lynnwood’s principal; there had been over 100 applicants for the post.

As a second-grader in Colonie public schools, she recalled, “During free time, I played teaching.”

“I’m passionate about kids and instructional leadership,” she said then. “What attracted me to Guilderland was the spirit of collaboration.”

Ms. Rizzo started her teaching career with the Albany City School District after graduating from The College of Saint Rose. She worked there for 16 years, beginning as a kindergarten teacher.

“I loved it,” she said.

Ms. Rizzo recalled her first school break, over Christmas, going with her fiancé, who became her husband, Dennis Rizzo, to see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Kindergarten Cop.”

“I teared up; I was so homesick for my kids,” she said. “I couldn’t wait to get back.”

Ms. Rizzo became a literacy coordinator and worked with Irene Fountas at Lesley University in Boston. “I provided coaching to teachers in my building,” she said.

Ms. Rizzo described her work with literacy as “teaching kids to learn how to learn.” She went on, “Kids learn differently. You have to create an environment so they’re always in the mode of learning new things.”

She also worked with teachers in developing problem-solving strategies.

Ms. Rizzo went on to work with the Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services as a school improvement specialist. She worked in different schools, providing support for shared decision-making, literacy, and needs assessment. She did “embedded staff development,” where she would spend several days a week all year at a school district.

The Hoosic Valley School District liked her work so much that she was hired there, full-time, as the director of instruction and academic services, a post she filled for two years.

Although she enjoyed her work there, she regretted getting further away from the classroom, and further away from the kids.

“I love working with teachers,” she said on being named a principal for one of Guilderland’s five elementary schools, “and, as a principal, I’ll get closer with the kids. This is an opportunity to do both,” Ms. Rizzo said of being Lynnwood’s principal.

Ms. Rizzo said she was up for the challenge of being Lynnwood’s principal. “If I can manage three children, grad school with a 4.0 average, and a full-time job, I can manage anything,” she said with a laugh.

She had both a master’s degree in reading from the University at Albany, and a certificate of advanced study in educational leadership from The College of Saint Rose.

“Mothers can do anything,” said Ms. Rizzo.

And so she could. Her breast cancer was first diagnosed, at Stage 3, at the end of her first year as Lynnwood’s principal. She did chemotherapy, and spent seven years cancer-free. The disease returned in January 2019.

When Ms. Rizzo first learned that her cancer was back, the entire faculty and staff at Lynnwood made a video for her. As Martina McBride’s “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” played, teachers and employees blew kisses and held up signs with handwritten messages of encouragement. Even the school’s service dog, a chocolate Labradoodle named Copeland, had a sign reading, “I ruff you.” 

One line in the song says, “When you’re weak, I’ll be strong.” Ms. Rizzo said that those words encapsulated the way Lynnwood works, with people supporting and pitching in for one another.

She returned to work in September 2019, and the Lynnwood Parent-Teacher Association began selling pink T-shirts with the logo “Ribbons for Rizzo,” raising money to help replace the older of Lynnwood’s two playgrounds.

“Sometimes I don’t feel great,” she told The Enterprise in 2020 as she was preparing to return in-person as Lynnwood’s principal after the pandemic shutdown, “but work is the best medicine.”

Ms. Rizzo’s breast cancer had reached Stage 4 — the breast cancer had metastasized to her lungs, bone, and liver — when she shared her journey with The Enterprise in August 2020, and her husband had recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer.

“He apparently wanted to compete with me,” Ms. Rizzo quipped at the time. “He didn’t want me to be a 4 without being a 4.”

She did chemotherapy treatments on Tuesdays, with two weeks on and one off, designed to “keep me stable,” she said, “so the cancer doesn’t progress.” 

“As long as that continues to work, as long as I’m kicking,” Ms. Rizzo said, “I get up and do my thing every day, just like everybody else.” 

She had days when she needed to manage nausea and fatigue, she said, which usually hit at the end of the week, a few days after treatment. 

But, she said that August, in 2020, “I can’t imagine Lynnwood coming back in a pandemic without me as the leader of the school.” She believed that “having someone that the kids recognize, that the faculty recognizes, that the community knows” would help everyone to feel reassured about safety. 

Ms. Rizzo retired from the principal’s post in 2021.

This week, the school district wrote in a tribute, “Alicia Rizzo modeled what it means to be a life-long learner by continually pursuing her own professional growth and inspiring others to do the same. Her efforts were driven by a deep commitment to providing students the very best opportunities to learn and grow.

“Under her leadership, Lynnwood Elementary School became a Literacy Collaborative School affiliated with Lesley University. In doing so, it was the first elementary building in Guilderland to support our own literacy coaches to work directly with their colleagues to enhance their expertise in literacy instruction.”

At the same time, her family wrote, “Despite having breast cancer for over a decade and losing her husband in 2021, she accomplished so much in her career and positively influenced so many — including colleagues, students, friends, and family.

“Alicia loved her yearly summer vacations to ‘her happy place,’ OBX, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with her family and beloved friends, the Kaufmans. She loved cheering on the New York Rangers with her son, Nolan, and weekend shopping and lunch excursions with her daughters, Kennedy and Piper. She loved singing and dancing with her grandsons, Boden and Hayden.

“She was unapologetically herself and had a strong love for fashion and accessorizing. Her co-workers love to share the story of her arriving for her interview for principal in a full-pink suit.”

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Alicia M. Rizzo is survived by her parents, John McLean and Virginia McLean; by her children, Nolan John (Morgan Maloney) Rizzo, Kennedy Allison (Jeff Taylor) Rizzo, and Piper Jameson Rizzo; by her sisters, Jacquelyn (Greg) Bennett and Jeanette McLean; by her grandsons, Hayden and Boden Taylor; and by many nieces, nephews, and beloved friends.

Her loving husband, Dennis J. Rizzo Jr., died before her.

Family and friends are invited and may call on Sunday, Aug. 13, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Wynantskill Funeral Home at 294 Whiteview Road in Wynantskill.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 14, at Grace Fellowship, 20 Delatour Road, Watervliet. Burial will follow at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in Colonie.

Memorial contributions may be made to METAvivor to support Metastatic Breast Cancer Research, Support and Awareness at www.metavivor.org.