Dana Fisher Awarded $1 Million AmeriCorps Grant for Expanded Climate Research

AmeriCorps has awarded an additional $1.04 million to SIS Professor and Director of the Center for Environment, Community & Equity Dana Fisherto expand her research project "Addressing Climate Change Through Our Nation's Service Corps."This funding builds on the $556,000 of funding that has come from AmeriCorps for the first two years of this three-year cooperative agreement.

Dr. Fisher will expand the existing research to look at AmeriCorps' Seniors Program and other climate corps programs in order to evaluate the engagement adn activism of older adults around the issue of climate. With the new funds, Dr. Fisher will:

1. Conduct research with AmeriCorps Seniors (ACS) following the pilot model with climate corps through the AmeriCorps State and National (ASN) funding (including expanding the indicator development and piloting), as well as compare data across these programs;
2. Study older adults engaging in climate activism and the effects of the work on political outcomes and the individuals participating;
3. Build out a DataCorps program that trains students to evaluate climate activism and engagement. During the summers, DataCorps fellows will conduct evaluations, write up their findings to share as deliverables with the specific programs they are studying, and then present the findings to ACS and beyond.

Dr. Fisher will primarily use surveys, interviews and focus groups to conduct her research for this project, which is unique in focusing on older Americans engaged in climate activism while also training younger students on data evaluation.

"My previous research has found that older adults are particularly engaged in climate activism right now, and I'm excited to do more intensive research into this component of the population," she said. "We're interested in looking at the environmental engagement of all sorts of peoples to understand the environmental effects but also the effects on justice, equity, and inclusion.

Dr. Fisher's research focuses on questions related to democracy, activism, and climate politics. Her most recent book, Saving Ourselves: from Climate Shocks to Climate Action, was published by Columbia University Press in 2024. She is the Director of the Center for Environment, Community & Equity, which aims to chart a long-term vision and roadmap for meeting the environmental challenges that lie ahead for the U.S. and the global community.