Jordan R. Fischbach, Ph.D., is the Director of Planning and Policy Research at The Water Institute of the Gulf.

Before joining the Water Institute, Fischbach was codirector of the RAND Climate Resilience Center, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, and an affiliate faculty member at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Since 2010, Fischbach has led RAND research focused on climate adaptation, urban resilience, water resources management, coastal planning, and post-disaster recovery.

For the past 10 years, Fischbach has been the principal investigator for the Coastal Louisiana Risk Assessment (CLARA) modeling effort, which provides next-level modeling capabilities for Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to efficiently estimate flood risk under a wide range of future environmental, operational, and growth uncertainties, and with various proposed projects in place.

He also serves as a co-investigator for the NOAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (MARISA) center, which has the goal to support the effective utilization of climate science and the building of adaptive capacity and resilience to climate variability and change in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Fischbach has led a series of projects supporting resilience planning and improved stormwater management in Pittsburgh since 2015, with a focus on evaluating the benefits and costs of green stormwater infrastructure. He previously led studies focused on estimating damage and needs after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, urban water quality management under uncertainty in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and future climate impacts and coastal resilience options in New York City after Hurricane Sandy.

Dr. Fischbach earned a B.A. with Honors in History from Columbia University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in 2010, where he was awarded the Herbert Goldhamer Memorial Award.