Welcome Madison Fansher, PhD

We are pleased to welcome a new faculty member, Dr. Madison Fansher, who joined CODA as a Research Assistant Professor on January 2, 2025. Her primary research at CODA will focus on developing educational interventions to improve risk assessment and decision-making in patients, ultimately resulting in improved health outcomes.

Dr. Fansher aims to apply an interdisciplinary approach to studying basic and applied cognitive processes in her research. She is broadly interested in topics related to complex cognition, with a specific interest in developing interventions to improve reasoning and decision-making. She has conducted quantitative and qualitative research in the domains of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and STEM education. She has worked on projects funded by organizations such as the Institute for Educational Studies (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Much of her work focuses on using visual aids of data to improve scientific reasoning and understanding of health data as presented in the news media. She also aims to create long-lasting educational interventions to improve such scientific reasoning skills. 

Dr. Fansher earned her PhD in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience within the University of Michigan (U-M) Department of Psychology in 2023, working with Dr. Priti Shah in the Basic and Applied Cognition Lab, and with Dr. John Jonides on topics related to applied cognitive psychology. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Fansher continued her work at U-M as a Research Fellow developing interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy, and as an instructor teaching undergraduate courses on cognitive psychology. She completed her undergraduate training at Purdue University, working with Dr. Sebastien Helie in the Purdue Lab for Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, and Dr. Thomas Redick in the Purdue Applied Cognition Lab. She is also a former fellow for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program.