Solving For Science is thrilled to introduce its inaugural Executive Director, Kari Fischer, PhD.
Kari Fischer, PhD is the inaugural Executive Director of Solving For Science, a new non-profit organization launched to help change the culture of science from within. SolvingFor will operate as an incubator, think tank, and a distributed community of learning and action, made up of working scientists and their allies to transform our ideas into the foundation of a new scientific future. We are lucky to have someone with Kari’s experience as both a working scientist and an activist who has sought to change things for the better at every step in her career.
Kari most recently served as an Associate Director at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), where she managed early career awards that promoted a more diverse oncology research workforce, bridged the divide between academia and industry with a investigator-led drug research program, and she launched the BCRF Global Data Hub—a centralized research portal to foster data sharing and collaboration. At the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), where Kari planned life sciences symposia and public programs, she changed her department’s approach to speaker diversity to promote equity in professional development for scientists. She also leveraged her events to develop a better understanding of how science can improve how it interfaces with the world, engaging with the topics of science misinformation and bioethics so deeply that she positioned NYAS as a thought leader at its first-ever panels at South by Southwest. Kari received her PhD at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she studied breast cancer metastasis and published in Nature. She attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. Her science writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Scientist, and on the International Space Station.
“She is an accomplished scientist, adept connector within the scientific community, and has extensive experience promoting culture change. Kari’s background makes her the perfect choice to lead our organization, as we strive to challenge existing systems and incentives to improve our science,” said Max Krummel, PhD, a founder and board member of Solving for Science, Chair of the ImmunoX Initiative and the Robert E. Smith Endowed Chair in Pathology at UCSF.
Over the next few months, Kari will be setting up SolvingFor operations, hiring staff to help with Development, Campaigns, and Community Management, and overseeing the Idea Engine pipeline and the first SolvingFor Campaigns. With our community, SolvingFor will be tackling a range of challenges like credit sharing; data sharing; diversity, equity, and inclusion; interdisciplinarity; mentorship; and more.
“We were impressed with her team building skills, organization, and deep understanding of the issues that surround science and science culture,” said Brooke Runnette, former Executive Vice President of the National Geographic Society, President of National Geographic Studios, and an Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist and producer; and a founder and board member of Solving for Science.
Kari came on board officially in late November 2022, just in time to plan our inaugural Solving For Science launch event in January 2023. We’ll have more soon on all that came out of that gathering, but Kari was the key to its success—as we know she will be to the overall ongoing success of Solving For Science.
“We are thrilled to have Kari as our inaugural Executive Director of SolvingFor!” said Vincent Chan, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer of the Bakar ImmunoX Initiative at UCSF and a founder and board member of Solving for Science.
For more information about Kari and to get involved in Solving For Science, please visit SolvingFor.org.
About Solving For Science
Solving For Science is a new 501c3 dedicated to exploring and evolving norms that shape how science is done, who becomes a scientist, and how science is communicated. Our mission is to create a world where science is genuinely collaborative, inclusive, and socially engaged. SolvingFor will operate as an incubator, think tank, and community of learning and action to accelerate and amplify its solutions. As working members of the scientific community, we realize that nothing will change unless we do.