Mayra Barragan-O’Brien
Position: Mental Health Senior Manager
E-mail: mbarraganobrien@immigrantsrising.org
Mayra (she/ella) is a first-generation Latina immigrant, entrepreneur, and mental health professional. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and migrated to the U.S. as a teen. Although she was never a DACA beneficiary, she earned a master’s in clinical/counseling psychology from CSU San Bernardino.
She is the founder of UndocuMental Health and the co-creator of Immigrants Rising’s Mental Health Career Program and Wellness Support Groups. Despite her fear of public speaking, she won the 2023 Audience Award of the Palm Springs Pitch Competition as a SEED Lab Accelerated Program participant at Caravanserai Project.
Mayra adjusted her status in 2023 and hopes to continue to work on destigmatizing mental health in the immigrant community by sharing and creating resources and creative visuals that people find insightful and/or comical. She also hopes to continue her work in storytelling by archiving the stories of non-traditional undocumented individuals through podcasting.
Mayra loves drinking coffee and reading, but her favorite self-care activities are changing her hair color and dressing in ways that defy Eurocentric professional standards.
