Senior Reporter
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Expertise: Business of international education | Study abroad | Overseas activities of U.S. colleges | Competition for foreign students | Internationalization of the American college experience | Role of colleges in economic development in their town, state, or region | Town-gown relations | Business-community relationships with colleges | State government policy and politics | Low-income and first-generation college students
Background: Karin Fischer, who came to The Chronicle in 2004, writes about how international concerns shape, and are shaped by, American higher education, and about the role colleges play in their local, state, and regional economies.
Fischer originally joined The Chronicle as a state-government and -politics reporter. In that role, she wrote about higher-education policy in the states; helped start and contributed to The Chronicle’s election blog, Campaign U.; and co-authored a yearlong series on the growing economic divide in higher education. She has been a speaker at conferences talking about higher-education policy, international education, and colleges and economic development.
Before coming to The Chronicle, Fischer covered banking, insurance, and corporate governance for Kiplinger Washington Editors and was a Washington correspondent for MediaNews Group. She also worked for the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, The Smith Alumnae Quarterly, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in The Washington Monthly and George.
A former editor of The Smith College Sophian, Fischer earned her bachelor’s degree in government from Smith College in 1996.
Honors: Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship, 2001-2002 | West Virginia Press Association awards for government affairs, legal, and news reporting, 1998 through 2003 | Poynter Institute News Reporting & Writing Fellowship for College Graduates, 1997
Media appearances: Fischer has been a guest on National Public Radio and C-SPAN, and has been interviewed by local newspapers and television and radio affiliates. She served as a panelist during Congressional-district debates in 1998, 2000, and 2002.
