Hanna-Tina Fischer

Germany

Biography

Hanna-Tina Fischer holds a Doctorate in Public Health, DrPH in Leadership in Global Health and Humanitarian Systems, from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Her doctoral work focused on social determinants of health, investigating the impact of adversity on children’s well-being and analyzing risk as a function of family level system adaptation to crises. Dr. Fischer has over 15 years' experience working on issues of child welfare and violence prevention in low- and lower-middle income countries. She has led post-disaster needs assessments in Thailand and Bangladesh, implemented psychosocial support programs in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and family tracing and reunification programs for children affected by natural disasters in the Philippines. In Africa, Dr. Fischer has worked on programs to support children associated with armed forces in South Sudan, refugee children in Dadaab, Kenya, and unaccompanied minors in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She also has experience of working with refugee populations in Germany and earthquake affected populations in L’Aquila, Italy.

Dr. Fischer is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Charité Center for Global Health, Charité Universitätsmediz in Berlin, Germany, where she is conducting a health policy analysis of the adoption and implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Prior to the Charité, she worked at the Center for International Health Protection, Robert Koch-Institute (RKI), leading a study that assessed the resilience of health systems in Guinea and Sierra Leone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Fischer has also worked with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and was an Associate of the Department for Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University. Born in Botswana and raised in India and Pakistan, she has a BA in Anthropology and Communication Studies from Goldsmiths’, University of London and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).