Dr. Reitzel is a critical part of NASA’s Space Medicine Operations Division in the Exploration Medical Integration Office guiding epidemiologic analysis and the appropriate use of archived astronaut data in how NASA’s data driven decision informs and mitigates risk for human spaceflight and long term health.  Previously she was the LSAH project manager responsible for managing the appropriate re-use of astronaut medical and research data.  In both roles, skill sets of an epidemiologist and project manager allowed for understanding unique epidemiologic challenges such as (privacy concerns, small populations, appropriate interpretations, how the data was archived) that drive effective and efficient study design and secondary analyses.

Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Reitzel spent 15 years at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX developing medical devices that prevent device related infections for which cancer patients are at high risk with the ultimate goal of efficiently moving these novel devices from bench to clinic through pre-clinical and clinical trials and FDA approval.  She earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in Epidemiology from University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, School of Public Health.