October 23, 2024

A friend texted me out of the blue: “When are you having children?”

I answered: “I am intentionally child-free.”

“Without children, what kind of legacy do you plan to leave?” They said.

In this piece, I dissect the ways we STILL can't look beyond the uterus and its childbearing potential in society and in medicine. As childfree women are under attack again, this IS personal.

July 4, 2024

There was a joke during my training that "XXX was so large we had to use the elephant MRI in the zoo for their scan." Let me be clear: fat jokes have no place in medicine. And the failure to accommodate larger bodies in healthcare is not funny. Weight stigma is prevalent and harmful in healthcare. The refusal and inability to see past fat denies access to healthcare for those who live with obesity. Here is why.

May 29, 2024

Following the 2022 publication of the NIH's 10-year epidemiological study that found an association between hair straightening products and uterine cancer, thousands of Black women filed lawsuits alleging hair product companies sold hair relaxers containing chemicals that increased their risk of developing uterine cancer -- and failed to warn customers. Meanwhile, the FDA missed its own deadline this month to propose a ban on one of the harmful ingredients (formaldehyde) in hair relaxers.

Racist beauty standards can cause harm far beyond financial health. They can literally kill.

March 26, 2024

When my boss presented me with only two options: do more work for free or be labeled a “bad colleague,” I don’t think he knew I was a writer. In honor of Women’s History Month, and on behalf of all women in healthcare and education, my friend and co-author Jacqueline Mitchell, MS, and I aim to redefine the “gender pay gap.”

Feb 6, 2024

The recent news about false positive drug testing by police resulting in tens of thousands of Americans wrongfully jailed reveals another hidden truth: Black Americans are disproportionally affected by this injustice. Drug tests are common in medicine, and this racial bias is just as rampant.

Feb 2, 2023

On January 10, Tyre Nichols died from police brutality. On January 30, the two EMTs and their lieutenant were fired. Black pain and suffering continue to be overlooked and undertreated by medicine. Yet remarks that deny medical racism still exist. What are the facts? What can we do?

July 12, 2022

Zed took care of an 85-year-old patient with dementia who developed muscle breakdown after being stuck on the ground for days. Below is a poem based on what he told Zed.

June 30, 2022

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. On MedPage Today, Zed writes about how this decision can disproportionally impact her marginalized teen community.

June 13, 2022

Zed writes about the challenges her rural community faces during a time of uncertainly due to increasing gun violence in America.

June 5, 2022

On June 1, four lives were taken in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a gunman who blamed a doctor for his pain. Zed comments on workplace violence toward healthcare workers, and sheds light on what this might mean for the future of medicine.

June 3, 2022

Zed’s opinion piece on loan repayment options for non-citizen physicians working in rural areas raises an important issue: for those of us who have a heart for rural medicine, and are here to stay, why should we be “punished” to a late start in life, financially?

March 31, 2022

CLOSER by Johns Hopkins Medicine featured Zed’s article on an important lesson she learned while working at a community health clinic serving the migrant workers: learn about the patient, not just the symptoms.

February 14, 2022

Women of Dartmouth production INSPIRE features Zed’s poem “Dear Xenophobia”.