Meet Liza Alejandro Cordero
Meet Liza Marie Alejandro Cordero, the Student and Family Support Coordinator at Mujeres Unidas Avanzando (MUA) and a single mother.
In 2024–2025, as part of our mental health equity initiative, Vital CxNs partnered with six organizations to host and facilitate a mental health conversation series grounded in the Mental Design Institute’s Understanding Everyday Emotions framework. Each partner adapted the course content and activities to ensure the series was culturally responsive and aligned with the specific needs of their community. Participants explored emotions, stress, and the body’s response to everyday challenges, building emotional vocabulary and practical regulation skills. Liza Alejandro Cordero is the Student and Family Support Coordinator at Mujeres Unidas Avanzando (MUA), one of the partner organizations for this initiative. We sat down with Liza to talk about her personal story and how that informs her work, her experience collaborating with Vital CxNs’ mental health initiative, and the importance of mental health in the Latine community and beyond.
Liza was born in Loíza, Puerto Rico, a town famous for being the epicenter of the Afro-Puerto Rican community and culture. The youngest of 6 children, she enjoyed what she considers a “normal childhood” on the island. Liza eventually pursued a bachelor’s in social work from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. Upon graduating, she began working for a nonprofit focused on women’s health, later expanding her focus to the physical and mental health of public housing residents.
In 2018, as a single mother of a son and a daughter, Liza decided to move to the mainland U.S. so her children would have access to better educational opportunities. First moving to New York and then to Boston in 2022, Liza had to start from scratch in this unfamiliar environment and remembers living in a shelter while she got her bearings. It was at this shelter that she met a Dominican woman who told her about Mujeres Unidas Avanzando (MUA), a Boston-based organization whose mission is to empower and educate women to help them achieve economic independence.
“I like meeting people where they are and being able to help them with whatever needs they have.”
Based on this referral, Liza began taking MUA’s English classes and then computer classes, eventually being offered a job there as a childcare provider. She did such a great job that when MUA’s director (at the time) retired, she offered Liza a new position as the organization’s Student and Family Support Coordinator. Liza was thrilled by the opportunity to do work aligned with her training and her passions: “Me gusta llegar a las personas y poder ayudarlas en las necesidades que tienen” / “I like meeting people where they are and being able to help them with whatever needs they have,” she says.
Liza says she has thoroughly enjoyed the role she now has at MUA helping women with diverse social needs, from housing and healthcare to emotional support. In reflecting on what has enabled her to build deep trusted relationships with them, Liza asserts that her lived experience is key: “Ellas se identifican conmigo porque, además de la preparación profesional, que es muy importante, ellas ven las vivencias de venir de abajo que yo también he tenido [igual a ellas]” / “[The women I work with] relate to me because, in addition to my professional training, which is very important, they see that I also have gone through the experiences of starting from nothing [like them].”
In talking about her role as a facilitator in MUA’s partnership with Vital CxNs’ mental health initiative, Liza lit up when describing how it allowed her to deepen her relationship with the women she works with, and thus better meet their unique needs. She labeled this as a “win” because “Para mí el ser agente de cambio por llevarle esperanza y amor a las estudiantes es mi meta principal.” / “For me, my primary goal is to be an agent of change by bringing hope and love to the [people I work with].”
Liza says the Spanish-speaking women who participated in the project also thoroughly enjoyed it, expressing a desire to continue after the conversation series ended. In fact, they ended up creating a booklet that detailed everything they did during the project because they wanted other people to know about it. Participants’ main takeaways were a better understanding of the importance of mental health and self-care, especially for Latina women who are raised to always prioritize others’ needs over their own. Some of these women have now been hired by Vital CxNs as Mental Health Peer Ambassadors to share what they’ve learned with their communities. According to Liza, the peer advocates are greatly needed in the Latine community since many people are unfamiliar with local mental health resources or can’t access them due to language barriers.
“For me, my primary goal is to be an agent of change by bringing hope and love to the [people I work with].”
Liza advocates that everyone should care about mental health because “Cada persona experimenta diferentes emociones cada día [así que] es bien importante que evaluemos nuestro interior día a día porque la prevención es vital [en la salud mental]” / “Everyone experiences different emotions every day, so it’s really important that we check in with ourselves daily because prevention is vital [when it comes to mental health].” Furthermore, she highlights that the impact of mental health goes beyond the individual: “Si nosotros ponemos nuestro granito de arena por trabajar nuestras emociones, vamos a tener una sociedad mejor en la que podamos vivir empáticamente preocupándonos por el vecino y así también podemos observar si otra persona necesita nuestra ayuda y podemos ser útiles para ellos.” / “If we do our part by caring for our own mental health, society as a whole will be better because we will live more empathetically, noticing and helping when others need support.”
Liza’s personal self-care practices include practicing her faith, going to the beach, reading, and spending time with her children.
If you'd like to invite one of MUA's Mental Health Peer Ambassadors to do outreach at your organization or event, please contact Mary at mary@vitalcxns.org.
Written by Briana Acosta (May 2026)