Carla L Fisher, PhD

Carla L. Fisher, Ph.D. is a Professor in Implementation Science and Health Interventions and affiliate of the UF Health Cancer Center and Center for Arts in Medicine. She is a behavioral scientist and expert in family-centered healthcare interventions and practice, particularly in psychosocial oncology. She has methodological expertise in qualitative designs in implementation science and building lifespan/developmentally targeted interventions using narrative-grounded mixed- methods research.

Dr. Fisher’s work aims to contribute to a “psychosocial map” that helps patients, caregivers, family members, and clinicians learn communication skills central to promoting healthier outcomes when coping with acute or chronic illnesses, family caregiving, and disease risk. Her primary focus has been on promoting family-centered psychosocial oncology care from pre-diagnosis through survivorship with much of this focused on improving care in breast cancer and blood cancers. Her work in family- or patient-centered healthcare has also spanned numerous healthcare contexts (e.g., dementia, diabetes, mental health, primary care, geriatric medicine, genomic medicine, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk, acupuncture). She also prioritizes reducing health disparities for vulnerable populations including women, racial/ethnic minorities, Veterans, the aging, adolescents and young adults (AYAs), and individuals living with hereditary disease risk. Collectively, her work brings to the forefront the importance of family communication in healthcare practice and public health interventions.

Dr. Fisher is also an expert in multi-method qualitative designs in implementation science. She is regularly invited to serve as the lead qualitative expert on grant-funded research supported by funders like NIH, PCORI, DOD, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She’s been an invited qualitative expert for the government including the National United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Office on Women’s Health (OWH), and for five years, served as the lead qualitative methodologist on multiple funded projects for the Military Primary Care Research Network. She currently directs a team of qualitative scientists who lead the qualitative arms of multiple funded studies and teaches a summer advanced graduate course in qualitative design and thematic analysis.

Fisher has been consistently funded for nearly 20 years at the federal, state, local, and private levels, and she’s authored >100 publications. This includes the only nationally recognized, evidence-informed book (Coping together, side by side), which addresses the central role of mother-daughter communication to breast cancer coping and caregiving and offers narrative-driven guidance targeting women’s distinct developmental needs. Across her career she has had the privilege of mentoring 66 graduate students as well as multiple early-career MDs and PhDs on their paths to independent investigators.