STEM Research Center

Dr. Heather A. Fischer is a senior researcher at the STEM Research Center. Before coming to the center in July 2018, Heather completed a Ph.D. in Geography at Arizona State University in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Currently Heather is working on multiple NASA, NSF, and USDA-funded projects and is partnering with researchers internal to OSU (including the Oregon Bee Atlas) and external (including with NASA and SciStarter).  

Heather’s research interests include data quality of volunteer-collected data, developing citizen science and informal learning programs with diverse groups of participants, evaluating the use of citizen science data for scientific research, and open access to volunteer collected data. Heather is also working on projects related to workforce development through experiential learning, focused on STEM education programs that teach essential skills. Heather has particular expertise in geographic information science, volunteered geographic information, and social science and program evaluation methodologies.