My name is actually Atlas

Atlas Bamonte is a 42-year-old disability advocate and lifelong community builder. Known as a “zebra” in the medical community, he has lived experience with rare and complex conditions, which deeply informs his work.   For many years, Atlas worked as a birth and lactation professional, serving families in Alabama and Florida as a WIC peer counselor, lactation counselor, and doula. He co-founded a nonprofit in Alabama dedicated to ensuring that people living in poverty had access to doula care, and he created inclusive homeschooling groups while raising and homeschooling his four children, each with medical complexities and unique learning needs.   Now based in South Carolina, Atlas spends much of his time collaborating with medical professionals at MUSC, Duke, and Harvard, and participating in research with the Norris Lab on connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). More recently, he was also diagnosed with dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease, making him a point of study and collaboration among specialists at MUSC.   Alongside his own medical journey, Atlas provides education and peer support for people living with rare diseases, chronic illness, and medical PTSD—helping others navigate systems that often feel overwhelming and isolating.