Meghan E. Garstka, MD, MS, was born in Chicago and moved with her parents to the suburb of Park Ridge. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend college at Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, she double majored in cell and molecular biology and Spanish, with a minor in general music, continuing her studies of piano and oboe throughout her college years. She also defended a thesis to obtain honors in Spanish during this time. She moved to New Orleans for graduate school at the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, where she completed a Master of Science degree in cell and molecular biology. She remained in New Orleans for medical school at Tulane University School of Medicine (TUSOM), where she was a member of the inaugural class of the DeBakey Scholars Program, a four-year mentored research program. She was also passionate about community health during medical school at Tulane and was the first clinic coordinator for the student-run Fleur de Vie free clinic in New Orleans East, and a founding member of the TUSOM Interclinic Council. She remained at Tulane for her general surgery residency and also completed a research year.

Dr. Garstka has achieved numerous awards and accolades including; the Tulane Humanitarian Award, the Matas Clinical Research Award and the American Thyroid Association Trainee Grant. In 2018, Dr. Garstka received a grant from the Society of Surgical Oncology to present her research poster at the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology in Xiamen, China. Most recently, in January 2020, she was designated the first-place winner for the Cancer Paper Competition at the Louisiana Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting.