Robert L. Fischer, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Robert L. Fischer
Grace Longwell Coyle Professor
Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Co-Director, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development
Case Western Reserve University
Rob Fischer Appointed to Grace Longwell Coyle Professorship
Dr. Robert L. Fischer has been appointed to a Grace Longwell Coyle Professorship at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, for a five-year term beginning July 1.
Professor Grace Longwell Coyle (1892–1962) made a profound impact on the study of social work group work and its practice. Her books and presentations were seminal to promoting group work education and the important analysis of group leadership, group dynamics and elevating social work leadership. The Grace Longwell Coyle Endowed Professorship was established in 1965 “to perpetuate the concept of the dedicated faculty member.”
Robert L. Fischer joined the Mandel School in 2001 as a senior research associate, became an associate professor in the tenure track in 2017 and tenured in 2020. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and generated more than $15 million in extramural grant funding as principal or co-principal investigator. Dr. Fischer has served as director of the MNO program since 2012 and was appointed chair of the program in 2018. He is the sole full-time faculty member teaching in the MNO degree program, and it is his dedication and leadership that led to it being in the inaugural cohort of accredited nonprofit masters programs in 2019 and its continued growth.
Additionally, Dr. Fischer has been co-director of the Center on Poverty and Community Development since 2005. He has also been an active member of the school’s steering committee, curriculum committee, budget committee, library committee and has served as chair of a standing committee on the faculty senate. Dr. Fischer has been a generous institution-builder at the Mandel School and CWRU and a frequent contributor to the academy.