2022
On May 10, 2022, we unexpectedly lost our beloved Dr. Jamie Gairo due to natural causes. Immeasurably loved, adored, and respected by so many, we were gifted 44 short but precious years on Earth with Jamie that were full of love and light, and 44 years that she lived out loud with bold, intentional purpose. It was Jamie’s purpose to make an impact on all who crossed her path. There’s a beautiful quote that reads “if you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.” One of Jamie’s Master’s program students at Rider University, where she taught and led two Master’s programs, shared that quote with her just two weeks before she passed away, along with the following note: “You are that beacon of light that has restored my faith and confidence in myself.” She was a blessing to so many. She received these notes over and over through the years, both personally and professionally. She changed the trajectory of people’s lives. Literally. Jamie was a light bringer who made everybody feel like somebody. To her, we were all somebody. Reading through comments left in memoriam over the last few days there are two themes: she was a “bright light” and “she made a difference in my life.” The themes show up over and over again in both personal and professional settings. These were her gifts. She meant so much to and was loved deeply by so many. She lifted people up, she breathed life into them, and helped them smash their limiting beliefs. She also loved big and deep and whether you were one of her people or someone who crossed her path along the way you knew it, because you could feel it. She was fierce and funny and direct and brilliant and powerful and strong and authentic. So authentic. Authenticity was her deepest core value and she lived it. She made everyone in her presence feel like they were safe to be themselves. She was a force, a powerhouse, but also genuinely warm and caring. Jamie believed in taking big bold moves in life, was relentless in her pursuit of smashing stigmas surrounding mental health, and she lived love. She loved her Philadelphia Eagles and was proud of her Irish heritage. In her accomplished professional career, Jamie was an educator, leadership coach, consultant, speaker, writer, earned two Master Degrees and a PhD, was an international best-selling author, and researcher, with a special focus on leadership development, succession management, emotional intelligence, and appreciative inquiry. She was deeply committed to cultivating the development of transformative, high-impact, mission driven leaders who go on to make a meaningful impact on people and organizations through their leadership. Jamie was also a fierce and fearless mental health advocate. She lost her birth mother, Michelle, to mental illness when she was a young child. This could have broken her, it could have been something Jamie chose to tuck away never to be seen or talked about, but that is not who Jamie was. She instead used it to find and fuel her passion for mental health advocacy which she called “Michelle’s Voice,” and to drive her unwavering commitment to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), including serving as Board Vice President of NAMI Bucks County PA. She was bold, loud, steadfast, and relentless in her pursuit of smashing stigmas surrounding mental health. The greatest, most important role to her, however, was as a wife and mother. Anthony, Matthew (12), and Fiona (9) were Jamie’s whole world. Loving, dedicated, strong, steady, and selfless, she was the matriarch of her family in the best, most inspiring ways. Of all her accomplished titles and roles, her favorite title and proudest, most treasured role was that of mom. She always put her family first and was indescribably proud of and grateful for their strong bond and close relationship. In the words of her husband, they grew their impenetrable family bond to be stronger than a mountain. Anthony and Jamie shared 23 incredible years together. Jamie’s unshakeable and immeasurable love and strength, and her ability to help others see the positive in things, will be with and guide them always. Her husband and children will always have that; that kind of true love and impact never leaves. Jamie impacted the lives of so many through her work as a mental health advocate and as Vice President, NAMI Bucks County PA, as a professor at Rider University (work she was so passionate about and proud of), as a mother, wife, sister, aunt, daughter, granddaughter, friend, godmother, ally, neighbor, stigma smasher, leader, coach, speaker, researcher, consultant, published international best-selling author, and in countless other ways. It is remarkable, really, what she accomplished and the people she impacted in 44 short years. Jamie may be gone from this Earth, but she is forever in the hearts and fabric of so many and has left an eternal legacy through her love, light, and work. Jamie was predeceased by her birth mother, Michelle Weinman, her biological father, Daniel Kelly, and her father throughout her life by love and choice, James J. McElroy. She is survived by her loving husband, Anthony, and her precious children Matthew and Fiona. She is also survived by and will be deeply missed by her mother, Violet McElroy, sister, Linda Haskins, and brother-in-law by marriage but brother by choice, Stephen Haskins, sister Tracie Weinman, brother Robert Weinman, Jr., grandfather Robert Weinman and his partner Betty Costello, and countless other family members and friends. Jamie is now a guardian angel to so many. All are invited to attend a celebration of Jamie’s life on Friday, May 20, 2022. The viewing will take place from 9 am to 11:45 am at Burns Funeral Home, 9708 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19114. The funeral service commences at 12 o’clock noon, with interment at Our Lady of Grace Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, Jamie’s family respectfully requests that you help support Jamie’s advocacy work and legacy by making donations in her memory to the advocacy organization that meant so much to her, NAMI Bucks County PA, 1432 Easton Rd., Suite 2D, Warrington, PA 18976. Online donations can be made at www.namibuckspa.org
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Dr Jamie Lynn Gairo Ph D 2022.
Death notice for the town of: Philadelphia, state: Pennsylvania