Co-Director, Center for Urban Poverty & Community Development
Research Associate Professor
Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Case Western Reserve University
 Website

Research Interests:
Program and policy evaluation and intervention research, Early childhood health and well-being, Health care outreach, Minority health interventions

Committees/Memberships:
Ohio Program Evaluation Group, Board President, 2005 to present
Ohio Commission on Minority Health, Research and Evaluation Enhancement Program (REEP), Columbus, OH: Panel member, 2005 to present
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Transplantation, Washington, DC: Evaluation consultant, 2003 to present
Ohio Department of Education, Alternative Education Challenge Grant Local Evaluation, Columbus, OH: Reviewer (volunteer), 2003 to present
American Evaluation Association, Social Work Evaluation Topical Interest Group, Program Chair, 2001-present
Policy Studies Organization, 1990-present
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 1989-present

Publications:
Fischer, R. L. (in press). In God we trust – all others bring data: Assessing the state of research on faith-based and community programming. Commissioned paper for White House Conference on Research Related to the Faith-Based and Community Initiative. June 26-27, 2008.

Fischer, R. L., Beimers, D. (in press). Executive coaching in the nonprofit sector: Preliminary experiences and outcomes. Nonprofit Management & Leadership. Accepted February 2008.

Fischer, R.L., Lalich, N., Coulton, C. Taking it to scale: Evaluating the scope and reach of a community-wide initiative on early childhood Evaluation and Program Planning, 2008; 31(2): 199-208.

Fischer, R. L., Nelson, L., Mikelbank, K., Coulton, C. Space to learn and grow: Assessing early childhood and education in a large urban county. Child and Youth Care Forum, 2008; 37(2), 75-86.

Beimers, D., Fischer R.L. Pathways to Employment: The Experiences of TANF Recipients with Employment Services Agencies in the Journey From Welfare to Work. Families in Society. 2007; 88(3): 391-400.

Presentations:
Fischer, R. L. (2008). What are you measuring, and is it improving your practice? Time to check your dashboard. Association of Fundraising Professionals, North Central Ohio Chapter. Akron, OH. June.

Fischer, R. L., Hardy, P., Coulton, C., Koroukian, S. (2008). Promoting child health: Monitoring SCHIP enrollment and utilization to assess change over time. Ohio Program Evaluators’ Group 2007 Exchange. Columbus, OH. May; National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics. Charleston, WV. August 2007.

Fischer, R. L. (2008). Navigating the multitude of dashboards and metrics: Which approach will work for you? Adoption Network Cleveland. Cleveland, OH. May; Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Cleveland, OH. March.

Staib, R., Fischer, R. L. (2008). Informing program planning for universal pre-kindergarten in Cuyahoga County: Capacity and quality. Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children. Columbus, OH. April.

Fischer, R. L. (2007). Evaluating program performance. Lakeland Nonprofit and Community Service Center: Kirtland, OH. October. Invited presentation.

Fischer, R. L. (2007). Evaluation in the nonprofit sector: More data…but any more accountable? Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations Research Seminar. Cleveland, OH. October.

Yung, B., Clasen, C., Deason, L., Fischer, R. L., Leahy, P., Perkins, F., Sharma, M. (2007). Demystifying program evaluation. Capacity-Building Conference for Minority Health. Columbus, OH. September.