Kate Fisher, Ph.D.

As a research analyst with CNA’s Institute for Public Research, Kate Fisher, Ph.D. has worked on several projects covering a variety of emergency management, public health and medical, and agriculture-related subjects—including communications interoperability; animal and plant disease preparedness planning and emergency response; and public health and medical real-world response operations. She joined CNA in May of 2010.

Most recently, Fisher managed an interoperable communications project for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Fisher oversaw the development of three state-level interoperable communications case studies, a life-cycle cost analysis of alternative statewide interoperable communications systems, as well as reviews of South Carolina’s Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan and State Homeland Security Strategy complete with recommendations for revision.

In addition to her work for South Carolina, Fisher has evaluated exercises and responses to real-world events for the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture (USDA). Her recent evaluations include analyses of: Noble Lifesaver, an aeromedical patient movement exercise conducted jointly with the U.S. Department of Defense; public health and medical force protection during the response to Hurricane Irene; as well as the overall public health and medical response to the January 2011 earthquake in Haiti. Fisher has supported several agricultural exercise projects for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). She is currently supporting the development of an interactive exercise conducted in a virtual environment for the APHIS National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN). Fisher has also provided facilitation and analytic support during a nationwide NAHLN tabletop exercise series testing laboratory plans and procedures during a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. In addition to supporting NAHLN, Fisher served as an evaluator and as project manager for an exercise series that included the development and evaluation of three tabletop exercises testing APHIS mobilization, communications, and resource request plans and doctrine.

Before joining CNA, Fisher was a USDA marketing specialist. In this role, she developed regulatory decisions and rules regarding regulation of the fluid milk market. Fisher received a Certificate of Merit for her work while at USDA. Fisher was also a research associate in the Community Development Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City where she collected data, performed literature reviews, conducted data analyses, and drafted research working papers; she received an Employee Excellence Award for her research. As a doctoral student, Fisher instructed a capstone Public Finance course, co-instructed a graduate-level Urban Economy and Public Policy course, and conducted research for the Virginia Center for Housing Research. As a master’s degree student, Fisher served as a teaching assistant for a senior-level capstone agricultural marketing course and a research assistant conducting research focused on consumer acceptance of genetically modified animal- and plant-based food products in the United States and South Korea as University Board of Regents Fellow.

Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization with a concentration in Economic Development from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University, and a B.S. in Animal and Poultry Science from Virginia Tech. She was a member of the Alpha Zeta Agricultural Honor Fraternity, the Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society of Agriculture, and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.