Writing
Selected Essays
Degeneration
Pleiades 44.1: Spring 2024. Featuring “On Disability,” a special folio edited by Kennedy Horton and Olivia Ellisor. This issue also features a tribute to Maureen…
Apnea, Amnesia
All it takes is an inch of water. That’s what they all tell you, isn’t it? Don’t leave your babies alone in a bathtub. They…
In the Blood
The honeybees that live in the walls of our house never did seem to like my sister. When she was six, one flew into her…
National Baptist Hymnal
When you’re walking in with the family, the thing to do is to try to look as devastated as you possibly can, whether you knew or liked…
CONVALESCENCE TRIPTYCH
1. It’s not that I wanted to make her cry. It’s just that I could stand it before. My sister and I had terrible fights….
Join the Club: Taking Charge of My Story as a Patient at the Hospital Where I Work
Being an “interesting” patient who also happened to be a trainee made me a morbid little celebrity. She was in a car accident when she…
Human Growth and Development
Bound and determined to drag us kicking and screaming into the world of grace and femininity, my grandmother stormed the JC Penney pre-teen section, bought…
The Crunchy Kind
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up on a tobacco farm in Rougemont, North Carolina. As soon as I turned eighteen I did what everybody else…
Meat Slurry and My Particular Brand of Optimism
The commercials were the worst. You never notice how many there are until you’re made NPO. I stared up at the television, stroked out and…
Every Little Anniversary
Cejas DM. A PIECE OF MY MIND. Every Little Anniversary. JAMA. 2015 Dec 1;314(21):2237. doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.12385. PMID: 26624822.
Selected Opinion
A Request for Accountability in Our Shared Spaces
To the administrators of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, As writers who are well aware of the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference’s much-lauded reputation, we were…
What Does It Take to Achieve Vaccine Equity?
Access Underscores Ugly Truths About Racism and Ableism I read the email over and over and over, checking and rechecking it to make sure it…
I Have a Disability Too, I Told My Patient
— Disclosure can benefit patients and the healthcare system alike Their stories are all different. There was the boy with cerebral palsy who just wanted…
The Anxiety of Being a Doctor With Preexisting Conditions
Doctors didn’t know what we were doing those first few weeks of the pandemic. I’d argue that we still don’t really know what we’re doing,…
A Disabled Doctor’s Complicated Relationship with Yoga
How disability complicated my relationship with yoga and changed how I talk to my patients When I graduated from physical therapy the second time, my…
To Thrive, Black and Latinx Physicians Need Their Communities
Iwas working at the nurses’ station in the emergency department when the elderly man in Room Four smiled at me. I had noticed him watching…
An Open Letter to Struggling Prospective Medical Students
I know what kinds of things I’m supposed to tell you. I know that your other would be advisors will usually stick to the same…
Some Things Sound the Same
I’m not much of a tennis fan, but I am a fan of Serena Williams. Who wouldn’t be after hearing her story? Her rise to…
Welcome to Your Intern Year Breakdown
Summer is upon us, and with it comes the end of the academic year, graduations and the arrival of the newest crop of interns. Soon…
Everything Else
Gum – in A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South, edited by Cinelle Barnes
A New York Times New and Noteworthy pick, this anthology of writers’ experiences living, working and writing in “the New South,” examining issues of sex,…
Join the Club: Taking Charge of My Story as a Patient at the Hospital Where I Work – in Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong
One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and…
Disability and Advocacy in Pediatric Neurology. Journal of Child Neurology Podcast
An interview with Diana Cejas, MD, MPH (she/her), author, pediatric neurologist and assistant professor of child neurology at the University of North Carolina School of…
An Interview with Dr. Diana Cejas. Docs With Disabilities Podcast
In this conversation, Diana Cejas, a pediatric neurologist, shares her experiences as a disabled Black woman in medicine. She discusses her journey as a cancer…
Disabled Doctors Were Called Too ‘Weak’ To Be in Medicine. It’s Hurting the Entire System. Lu, W, Huffington Post
Diana Cejas was working as a resident physician at a New Orleans hospital when doctors discovered a cancerous tumor on her neck. The tumor had…
Why This Doctor Is Fighting for Her Patients’ Pain to Be Taken More Seriously. Teen Vogue
Diana Cejas was 25 years old and in her second year of medical school when she found a lump on her neck. She went to her…
Misdiagnosed
Swollen Lymph Node Turned Out to Be Cancer Diana Cejas was told the lump on her neck was “nothing to worry about.” Five years later,…
Doctor who survived cancer, stroke: “I was there… Maybe I can help”
Over the course of her medical career, Diana Cejas has worked with cancer patients and stroke victims. It’s to be expected — she is, after…
Ableism in Healthcare
Assistant Professor at UNC School of Medicine and pediatric neurologist at the Carolina Institute of Developmental Disabilities, Dr. Diana Cejas discusses how ableism impacts patients…
Diversity in Healthcare: Perspectives on Disabilities
Diversity Podcast Project Hosted by the COM Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programs Coordinator, Jay Anderson, our new podcast series focuses on diversity in…
Disability Visibility: an Interview with Alice Wong and Diana Cejas
A Family Medicine Disability Health Program MDisability is a collaborative family medicine program focused on improving the primary care of people with disabilities through medical education, research,…
The Intersection Between Disability and Race: an Interview with Justin Bullock and Diana Cejas
Nearly one in four Americans identify themselves as a person with a disability, with most having experienced significant health inequities. People with disabilities (PWD) are rarely the focus…
My NCBI Bibliography
Diana’s Bibliography
Disability Visibility Health Equity for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs: A Vision for the FutureDisability Visibility
Health equity is a key pillar in supporting a future in which CYSHCN enjoy a full life and thrive, as envisioned by experts and community…