PA Lili Barajas and Her Commitment to Health Equity and Representation in Medicine
“Representation matters, not only to us medical providers, but also to our patients.”
February 7, 2025
By Alex Morse
On January 7, three large wildfires broke out across Los Angeles County within hours of one another. Throughout January, the Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires had ravaged more than 47,000 acres of land, burning everything in their wake—including more than 16,000 homes.
In response to the devastation, there has been an outpouring of community support. One member of the community who jumped into action was physician associate Lili Barajas, who was shocked by the thick smoke and ash blown all the way to her house from the fires burning more than 25 miles away.
“It was really strange driving to work that day,” said Barajas, whose car filled with ash before she reached the freeway. “I usually see the LA city skyline on my way to work, but that day, the freeway was pitch black. It looked like it was nighttime.”
Only a few days after the fires began, Barajas and her partner gathered supplies to donate to those in need. “We had to go to a couple of different sites to find one that was still accepting donations,” said Barajas, who eventually found an opening at the Santa Anita Park in Arcadia. “It’s a good problem to have. There is an abundance of resources available to the community that needs it.”
[For anyone seeking information or resources regarding the Los Angeles fires, please visit CA.gov.]
Before heading to the donation site, they stopped at Costco and loaded a cart with necessities, such as sanitary napkins, soap, deodorant, and toothbrushes. “The donation site was closest to the Eaton fire, and there are large Hispanic and Black communities there. They were the ones that were most affected,” she said. The Santa Anita Park set its 750,000 square-foot parking lot up as a donation center and saw over 100,000 visitors. “It was heartwarming, but also so heartbreaking. I almost lost it when I saw a little girl pick up the teddy bear I donated and hug it tightly.” Later that day, she posted a video on TikTok, showing the sea of people navigating the donated goods.
Since then, Barajas has been searching for other ways to give back, especially in some sort of medical capacity. However, with the overwhelming number of volunteers and the limits on PA practice, she is finding it difficult. Despite these setbacks, she continues to help in other ways, like covering shifts for co-workers who have lost their homes or been impacted by the fires.
Becoming The Flowery PA
When Barajas started her medical journey, she left Los Angeles and moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts for PA school. Throughout school, Barajas turned to social media to document her experience and find community. She created a brand-new profile, The Flowery PA, and started posting on TikTok and Instagram (now with a combined 8,600 followers).
“When I started posting, I wasn’t seeing a lot of PA [influencers] who were minorities or Latinos. There’s quite a few Latino PAs out there, but I feel like you don’t really see a lot of them on TikTok or Instagram,” said Barajas, who also noted a lack of diversity amongst her fellow classmates. “I wanted to see more of that diversity.”
Before she knew it, people started interacting with her posts and reaching out to her. They would thank her for motivating them and ask questions. “They were telling me how good it felt to be represented in the medical field. And I think that is really what kept me going and kept me motivated.” Occasionally, people will reach out to her with volunteer opportunities, like mentoring pre-PAs on the application process, and she jumps at the opportunity.
A lifelong commitment to health equity
Barajas was interested in a career in healthcare from a young age. When she was eight, she accompanied her mother, who was pregnant with her brother at the time and didn’t speak much English, to her prenatal appointments to act as a translator for the physician who did not speak Spanish. “That stuck with me throughout my educational years, and I realized that I wanted to be that person to provide care to underserved communities and help with that language barrier.”
Before becoming a PA, she dug deep into volunteer work to help her community and improve her skills. In addition to working full time, she volunteered as a mentor at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), providing guidance and support for underprivileged high school seniors applying to colleges, and a Spanish interpreter at a local community clinic for more experience in a healthcare setting.
After graduating PA school, Barajas accepted a position as a pediatrics PA in Van Nuys, California. “I would probably speak Spanish to about 90% of my patients. It wasn’t necessarily my favorite specialty, but it was where I felt I could make the most impact.” She could relate to her patients’ struggles and speak to their parents in their native language. Barajas currently works in three specialties: pediatrics, emergency medicine, and urgent care.
In a motivating post, she describes her experience touring a new clinic and seeing how an abundance of providers with Hispanic surnames made her immediately more comfortable. “Representation matters, not only to medical providers, but also to our patients.”
At present, her volunteer work primarily involves mentoring future PA students and she hopes to be able to work with PA students more closely in the future, especially in a hands-on capacity.
Do you know of a PA or PA student who deserves to be recognized for going beyond? Share their story with us!
Alex Morse is AAPA’s Communications Associate. She can be reached at [email protected].
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