Dana R. Fisher is a dynamic speaker and author who writes about activism, democracy and climate policy. She is the Director of the Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE) and a Professor in the School of International Service at American University. She also serves as a Non Resident Senior Fellow with the Governance Studies program at The Brookings Institution. Her most recent book, Saving Ourselves: from Climate Shocks to Climate Action was published in 2024 by Columbia University Press. In fall 2024, she delivered a TED talk about being an apocalyptic optimist based on Saving Ourselves. More recently, she has focused her research on understanding how citizens are mobilizing during the current polycrisis caused by threats to democracy along with the climate crisis, along with evaluating the ways that service corps members are helping build community resilience and respond to and recover from disaster. She served as a Contributing Author for Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Review (IPCC AR6) writing about citizen engagement and civic activism. Her media appearances include ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, and various programs on NPR, BBC, and CBC. Her words have appeared in the popular media, including in the Washington Post, Slate, TIME Magazine, Politico, the Nation, Teen Vogue, the Hill, and the American Prospect. Fisher earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has authored over eighty research papers and book chapters and has written seven books.
Photo credit: Aaron Spicer.
Dana R Fisher 