Kaleigh A. Stabenau, MD

Education and Training Committee Chair

Kaleigh A. Stabenau, MD is an assistant professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California-Irvine. She was the inaugural graduate of the Arizona Program for Exploration (APEX) Medicine and Surgery Fellowship through the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and currently serves in an adjunct faculty role as the assistant program director, where she focuses on robust curriculum development and curating commercial space and research experience for the fellows. Dr. Stabenau holds contracts with multiple commercial space companies, working in medical systems development, human factors, and mission operations. She served as flight surgeon on the Axiom-3 and Polaris Dawn missions and will continue serving for Fram2 and Axiom-4. Her research focuses on the risk and tradespace analyses for surgical contingencies in long-duration spaceflight and the development of training paradigms for future space surgeons. Dr. Stabenau also holds a private pilot certificate and enjoys science fiction writing and  video games, which she contends teach strategy, teamwork, and resilience.