30
COM Outlook . Winter 2015
Throughout his two-decade ca-
reer at Downstate College of Medi-
cine’s Department of Preventive
Medicine, Dr. Fleisher was able to
enrich himself on a number of levels.
“I loved that job because I was able
to conduct significant research in
both clinical and environmental
epidemiology,” he said.
Finding Fulfillment at NSU
After spending 20 years as a facul-
ty member at Downstate, Dr. Fleisher
opted to take an early retirement and
accept a job with the Department
of Defense as an epidemiologist at
the Naval Environmental Health
Center in Norfolk, Virginia, where
he worked on both classified and
unclassified projects. Although he
enjoyed his time in Virginia, a yearn-
ing to return to the academic milieu
would culminate in him relocating to
South Florida to become an associate
professor in NSU-COM’s Master of
Public Health Program in May 2004.
Since his arrival at NSU-COM,
Dr. Fleisher has helped enhance
the M.P.H. curriculum by develop-
ing and teaching courses such as
Environmental Health, Epidemiol-
ogy, Outbreak Investigation, and
Introduction to the SAS Statistical
Package. He also serves as a research
mentor to many of the program’s
students and collaborates with
faculty members from the college
and NSU’s Oceanographic Center
on various projects. “I have enjoyed
being a faculty member at NSU,” he
stated. “Perhaps the most enjoyable
part for me has been my interactions
with both the faculty and staff mem-
bers. In my 34 years in academia, I
have never worked with a friendlier
and nicer group of people.”
In terms of his own research inter-
ests, Dr. Fleisher, who holds volun-
teer associate professor appointments
at NSU’s Oceanographic Center, the
University of Miami, and the Univer-
sity of Wales in the United Kingdom,
continues to focus on disease trans-
mission via exposure to recreational
waters. In addition, he serves on the
Journal of Community Health
Editorial
Board and as a peer reviewer for pub-
lications that include
Water Research
,
the J
ournal of Epidemiology and Com-
munity Health
, the
Journal of Water and
Health Research
, and
Environmental
Science & Technology
.
Over the years, Dr. Fleisher has
gained international status as a
respected expert on the transmission
of infectious disease via contact with
recreational waters, which is a hard-
earned reputation of which he is
deservedly proud. “I have published
numerous papers in clinical epide-
miology as well as epidemiological
and statistical methods, including
15 peer-reviewed articles, during
my tenure at NSU,” he stated. Proof
of Dr. Fleisher’s research prowess
is evidenced by the notification he
received earlier this year from Sco-
pus—the largest abstract and citation
database of peer-reviewed litera-
ture—that his body of research has
been cited 1,037 times in 758 journals.
“I think my greatest achieve-
ment in the research environment,
however, is the fact that an organiza-
tion called ResearchGate, which has
1.2 million researchers worldwide,
has rated my research among the
top 2.5 percent of all members,” he
added. “ResearchGate is an organi-
zation that rates the quality of one’s
research rather than the quantity.
Rating quality, not quantity, has
been a growing trend throughout the
research community with the advent
of journal impact factors and ratings
on Scopus and ResearchGate.”
According to Dr. Fleisher, this is
a promising trend he fully supports.
“My pet peeve today is that too many
researchers are judged by the quan-
tity of their publications—and not the
quality,” he explained. “Too many
researchers chase grant monies, lead-
ing them to conduct research in areas
they are only partially educated in;
thus, expertise in a single area of sci-
ence is being diluted by the chase for
grants. I think this is true nationwide
and is having an effect on research in
general. With the advent of journal
impact factors, ResearchGate, and
Scopus, we now have several meth-
ods of judging a researcher by the
quality of his or her research.”
As he enters his 11
th
year as an
NSU-COM faculty member, Dr.
Fleisher says he has no plans to slow
down anytime soon. “As I get older,
I want to maintain my activities in
research, but I am increasingly inter-
ested in teaching the generation that
will replace me,” he concluded. “My
aim is to explore evidenced-based
teaching and try to make learning a
fun and lifelong process.”
Dr. Fleisher with his granddaughter, Kayla.
