Speaker Biography

Starr Schroeder

Registered Nurse

Lancaster General Hospital Penn Medicine

Gwendolyn Starr Schroeder graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1999. She is currently a Registered Nurse citizen-scientist whose nursing experience includes critical care, nursing research, nursing management/leadership and nursing education. She graduated from Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) Advanced Academy in 2018 and is currently the external media coordinator for PoSSUM 13, thirteen female PoSSUM scientist-astronaut candidates who serve as global ambassadors in increasing opportunity and representation for students in STEM. Starr is a member of the Association of Spaceflight Professionals where she is co-lead for research involving medical guidelines in commercial space flight participants. Her team presented at the International Astronautical Congress in October 2019. In addition, she is a member of the Aerospace Medical Association, National Space Society and the Moon Village Association Human Factors Committee. She is a Master’s Candidate in Human Factors in Aerospace at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Her publications include chapters on Spaceflight Nutritional Support, Future Trends in Spacesuits, as well as The Lunar Environment in the Handbook of Life Support Systems for Spacecraft and Extraterrestrial Habitats (in review). Starr has become an active participant in the space medicine community and is involved in multiple collaborations including research related to ECG changes during parabolic flight and spacesuit life support systems testing with Final Frontier Design to achieve her goal of incorporating her experience in medicine into her love for space by pioneering, defining, and developing the role of nursing in the commercial space industry as well as advocating for the continued development of space medicine in current and future space exploration.