Diana Cejas, MD, MPH

Alice, our oracle, was a cheerleader, mentor, & friend. Selfishly, I'm sad that she won't get to read the book that she encouraged me to write. I hope that my work does her justice & that us disabled artists will let her words push us forward.

Rest easy, Alice.

A desk in a writer's studio. A laptop is open to show several new paragraphs of an essay. A colorful water bottle, N95 mask, and large monitor are among the office supplies on the desk. Late afternoon sunlight pours through the window

The Wyoming sky at sunset. Wispy clouds reflect orange light over the darkened hills

At Ucross & reflecting on the fact that I would not be here if not for Alice Wong. I found my way back to writing through a group for young adult cancer survivors. A piece that I started in that group turned into an essay that Alice published in Disability Visibility.

Alice Wong, disability activist and luminary, dies at 51 - The Sick Times Alice Wong platformed and uplifted people with Long COVID in her final chapter as a lifelong disability advocate and storyteller.

Here is an obituary for Alice Wong from The Sick Times, a publication aligned with disability rights and disability activism, if you are looking for an alternative to reading the nyt one: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...

I never met Alice Wong in person, but like so many great writers I felt like I knew her - and unlike many, when I emailed she emailed right back. ❤️

Peds neurologist @dianacejasmd.bsky.social has a beautiful essay in Wong's Disability Visibility collection - I recommend it to physicians. #neurosky

Honoring Alice Wong's life and legacy with gratitude, in solidarity and sorrow, this morning. I was a fan; thinking of all who loved and knew her personally.

Alice's words speak to us still. As a chronically ill person, I will keep listening. What a beautiful, bold, *brilliant* life well lived.

Disability Visibility Project "Creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture"

If you're just stumbling across everyone's posts about Alice Wong ( @sfdirewolf.bsky.social ) today, she was an active writer and editor, in addition to her work as a disability visibility advocate with disabilityvisibilityproject.com

Alice Wong was one of the most effective people challenging the Whiteness of disability communities and its many flaws, but who believed fiercely in us as a community, in disabled people as oracles.

Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.

One way I have found to mourn someone is to set up a monthly sustaining donation to a mutual aid effort they cared about. If you can join me in honoring Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social with a sustaining donation today, please do. Thank you Alice, and I will not let the bastards grind me down.

I’m heartsick to hear that the incomparable Alice Wong has passed. Her loss will be felt keenly, by many, and for a long time. She is a force, a generous leader and storyteller, and an oracle for disabled futures. Much love to Alice and to all our crip kin and comrades. ❤️‍🩹

‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’
—Alice Wong

What a privilege it is to be a younger disabled person in a community shaped by Alice Wong. Rest in peace, Alice.

Steven and Alice smiling and holding each other’s books

Our beloved Alice Wong has joined the ancestors. It was one of the great honors of my life to call Alice my friend, co-author & co-conspirator. She was a true genius, a force of nature the likes of which the world has never seen before. I love you, Alice, and am equal parts grateful and devastated

AMWA Announces the 2025 INSPIRE Awardees!
This Women in Medicine Month, AMWA proudly recognizes 47 extraordinary women physicians whose vision, integrity, service, and leadership continue to shape the culture of medicine.
vist.ly/48ekh
#AMWA #WomenInMedicine #INSPIREAward

2025 AMWA Inspire Award winners

Look at all these amazing neurologist women!
-researcher Erika Augustine
-writer & disability advocate @dianacejasmd.bsky.social
-digital educator Jacki Martindale
-epileptologist & advocate Sucheta Joshi
-vascular neurologist & DEI advocate Alexis Simpkins
-& me!
www.amwa-doc.org/news/announc...

Announcement of the 2025 AMWA Inspire Awardees with photos of each recipient. One of the awardees, Diana Cejas, MD, MPH, wears a bright yellow dress and white floral earrings in her photo.

Honored to share that I am a American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Inspire Award Recipient!

Congratulations to this incredible group of physicians!

www.amwa-doc.org/news/announc...

An announcement reading "Congratulations to the Fall 2025 Ucross Fellows" written in black block letters over a photo of a tree lined road during the Fall. Many of the trees have started dropping their yellow leaves on the empty road.

A list of the 2025 Ucross Fall Fellows in Literature which includes Diana Cejas - a fellow in Nonfiction from Rougemont, NC

Incredibly excited to share that I am a Fall 2025 Ucross Fellow!

Thanks to @ucrossfoundation.bsky.social for providing me with the time and space to work on my art. See you soon!

AAP’s latest immunization schedule is rooted in pediatric science and clinical care, and includes recommendations that will help children build the strongest immune defense against respiratory illnesses, like the flu, COVID-19 and RSV. Learn more by visiting our website.
www.aap.org

The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.

Pregnancy is a minefield when you're disabled Few OB-GYNs get disability training—and their disabled patients are far likelier to die.

Disabled people are 11 times more likely to die during labor/in the postpartum period than non-disabled people. Better education and smashing ableism is how we get out of this horrible stat.

For the past year, I’ve been looking into the topic of disability and pregnancy for @motherjones.com 🧵

When I see people online, even in jest, suggest that people living in Republican-controlled states should be abandoned because of their politicians, I feel a deep heartache. New York CREATED Donald Trump and none of y’all are ever talk about it the way you disparage Alabama or Mississippi.

Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding

“A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group”

Is the FDA about to keep pregnant women from taking antidepressants? A panel of experts repeated what one women's health expert called "MAHA talking points."

Mental health conditions, like suicides & overdoses, are the leading underlying causes of maternal deaths in the US.
Antidepressants save women's lives—& they're safe.
So why is RFKJr's FDA hell-bent on undermining their use among pregnant & postpartum moms?
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Advancing Disability Equity in Neurology | Neurology

An absolute must read from @drbhooma.bsky.social @dianacejasmd.bsky.social

www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

A Black woman (Diana) smiles as she takes a selfie in the bathroom mirror. She is wearing brown tortoiseshell glasses and a pink nightdress with little pink flowers on the collar. A bandage covers a fresh surgical wound on the right side of her neck. Her smile is lopsided because she recently had a stroke.

A Black woman (Diana) with long braids smiles as she takes a selfie. She sits in front of a shelf full of plants. She is wearing gold earrings and a green dress. The scar on her neck is healed now. Her smile is still a little lopsided because of the stroke that she had years ago.

Me and my scar 1 day out of the hospital, 1 week after my stroke, 1 month after my cancer diagnosis

Me and my scar 13 years and 1 day out of the hospital, 13 years and 1 week after my stroke, 13 years and 1 month after my cancer diagnosis

I am still here.

Children depend on their adults and the adults who have power over their communities to keep them safe. I hate when the adults don’t do that.

I need y’all to see the disconnect between your very real concern about gerrymandering and all the forms of voter suppression and your ire against southern and red states and your belief that all those people get what they deserve.

You don’t actually care about the first if you believe the second.

An orange and pink four o'clock flower blossom pointing towards the sun on a hot summer afternoon

thirteen years after cancer, thirteen years after a stroke, I am still here

Advancing Disability Equity in Neurology | Neurology

It's more important than ever for neurologists & all in healthcare to advocate for equitable care for disabled people

So proud to be an author on this position statement & proud to see @aanmember.bsky.social standing up for disability equity, access, & inclusion

www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

Breaking Down the Massive Cuts to Science Funding

This NY Times podcast discusses 1,700 NIH grants that were cancelled mid-stream. They largely fell into two categories: (a) studies of underrepresented populations (e.g., black women, gay men); and (b) studies by researchers from underrepresented groups.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/p...

Duke appears to have lost NIH grants because they used the prefix "trans" in reference to disease transmission, transgenic genetic material, translational studies, or signal transduction www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...