Fischer was born  in Rhode Island. She was drawn into atmospheric science when, at age eleven, Hurricane Bob hit her home state in August 1991; blown away by nature's phenomenon, she called her local meteorologist to ask "what made wind".
After a year at Colby College, she transferred to the University of British Columbia, where she graduated with a B.S. in Atmospheric Science in 2002. In 2004, she earned M.S. in Earth Sciences from the University of New Hampshire, Durham. Finally, after studying transpacific air pollution on Mount Bachelor, OR, she earned her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2010.