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Meaghan Reitzel
Postdoctoral Fellow
Biography
Dr. Meaghan Reitzel (she/her) is an occupational therapist and a Postdoctoral Fellow whose work spans children’s rehabilitation, disability policy, and equitable service systems. She brings nine years of clinical experience in paediatric rehabilitation and is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Occupational Therapy Program at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
Meaghan is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and the School of Rehabilitation Science/CanChild at McMaster University. Under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Zwicker and Dr. Michelle Phoenix, her research uses a community-engaged, co-design approach to advance eligibility criteria and service design practices within government disability programs and services, with the goal of better reflecting the lived functional needs of children with disabilities.
Meaghan completed her PhD in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University in 2025, supervised by Dr. Michelle Phoenix. Her doctoral research examined how organizational policies and service delivery models influence equitable access to and engagement in children’s rehabilitation services. Through partnerships with caregivers, clinicians, and health service leaders, this work generated recommendations for inclusive policy and service design and underscored the importance of authentically engaging families in health systems focused research.
Area of Focus
Childhood disability, Children’s rehabilitation, Disability policy, Equity and access, Co-design with families