LOS ANGELES – Every morning before she would go to school, Erin Ryan’s father would tell
her two things: “Be good and do your best.” To this day, she has stuck to those words.
As the CEO of West LA’s branch of the National Alliance Against Mental Illness (WLA NAMI), Ryan works to provide accessible mental health resources for as many people in the area as possible. With current political attacks on marginalized groups and over 48,000 deaths by suicide in the U.S. last year, these resources remain crucial. But her journey to mental health advocacy wasn’t as straightforward as you might think.
Erin Ryan has served as WLA NAMI’s CEO since 2018. Photo courtesy of Hello Sunshine Media Company.
“I feel like I have quite an eclectic background … I have a strong family foundation and I think that was a big part of giving me confidence to think that I could try anything or do anything,” said Ryan.
And try anything she did.
Over the course of her life, Ryan got a degree in political science from the University of Connecticut, became a trained teacher in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from the Brown School of Public Health, worked as a congressional aide for U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, and became a master gardener through the University of California.
With such a diverse background, nobody could have guessed where Ryan would have ended up career-wise, including her.
“I don’t think I ever set out to be a CEO of a mental health nonprofit … this opportunity arose and I was able to kind of combine all of my strengths,” Ryan said.
But her passion for advocacy didn’t come out of nowhere. As a teenager, Ryan was the president of Natural Helpers at her high school, an organization dedicated to building natural support networks in schools to promote mental wellbeing.
“I never thought of it as a career. It was just something that came naturally to me,” Ryan expressed.
Ryan recalls a specific moment in her undergrad where she realized the impact of advocacy. When a horrific act of violence was committed against a woman on Ryan’s college campus, she and a group of friends put together a production of “The Vagina Monologues,” a series of monologues written by V, a Tony-winning playwright, to help prevent violence against women.
The group’s effort directly impacted life at the university, getting people to talk about a difficult subject and even resulting in 24-hour emergency call boxes around the campus so students could reach out for help at any time.
“For many of us, it was a moment of realizing that we had a voice and that we could use it to make our community safer,” said Ryan.
Ryan applied this lesson to her CEO position when she joined NAMI in 2018, which she described as more of a mom-and-pop organization at the time. Since then, the nonprofit has grown tremendously, now with over 650 state and local affiliates across the United States, according to NAMI’s website. In 2025 alone, the organization served over 93,000 people through its NAMI HelpLine, a phone number that can be reached most days of the week to provide one-on-one support for life struggles.
“It’s an honor to do this work. To create a space where people can be better and to create a safe space for people to heal and to recover,” said Ryan. “It’s a really beautiful thing.”
Despite their widespread use, resources like these are not always guaranteed. In July of 2025, the Trump Administration discarded the “Press 3” option on the nation’s 988 suicide hotline, which previously funneled queer youth to a specific line for their community.
This move sparked outrage and emotional turmoil in the LGBTQ+ and mental health communities, who worried it would never return. The impact of the absent helpline, as well as increased anxieties due to ICE raids in Latino communities, left Ryan feeling emotional for the people relying on her organization.
“You are the voice of the people that are going through the pain. So to not feel it would be a disservice,” said Ryan.
While the “Press 3” option was reinstated on Oct. 1, non-government-funded organizations like NAMI allow for separation from policy that may otherwise affect how they operate.
NAMI has partnered with organizations like UCLA Health, The Jewish Foundation, the YMCA, and the Los Angeles Girl Scouts, who even have a NAMI badge that their scouts can earn.
NAMI has also recently collaborated with that same playwright, V , to produce the mental health version of “The Vagina Monologues” with the purpose of opening up conversations about mental illness. The LA premier of this play, called “This Is Crazy,” was Oct. 13 at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. It’s a full circle moment for Ryan.
“It’s like something in the universe that’s saying, oh, you’re on the right path,” Ryan said about the collaboration.
To Ryan, mental health is integrated into every aspect of life, and her family is what motivates her to continue her advocacy.
“As a mother, I think that I want to create spaces where mental health is easily accessible and there is no stigma there so that people can share and talk and reach out for help,” said Ryan.
With two daughters, Ryan strives to make the future of mental health discussions better than the past. And although that future may be uncertain, she is determined to continue her advocacy work for as many people as possible.
“Just know that people are on the front lines fighting the fight to keep those services alive and well.”
Cover photo courtesy of Hello Sunshine Media Company.
