Dr. Andrea Reaka received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago where her research focused on Molecular Modeling and Drug Design. She did a Post-doctoral Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis focusing her researching on beta-turn mimetics for a protein scaffolding library. She has presented and published her work in various media.

Dr. Reaka has  previously taught at the School of Pharmacy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Harris-Stowe State University, along with various community colleges including St. Louis Community College and Southwest Illinois College.