Kayla Branstetter is an English Instructor at Crowder College, a published writer with work appearing in more than forty journals worldwide, a TEDx speaker, and the author of the forthcoming book Don’t Be an Athena. Her work focuses on women’s health, narrative medicine, reproductive trauma, medical gaslighting, and the cultural expectations placed on women’s bodies and resilience. She is currently completing a Doctorate of Education in Healthcare, with research centered on narrative medicine in women’s healthcare and the role patient stories play as evidence in systems that too often dismiss women’s pain. Through her teaching, writing, and speaking, Kayla brings together research, creative nonfiction, and lived experience to foster deeper conversations about ethical care, storytelling,...