HHD Senior Scientist Named Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow

(May, 2003) This September, Sue Gallagher will bring her public health message to the nation’s capital as she accepts a prestigious new appointment.

competitive fellowship program enables mid-career professionals to participate in health policy processes at the federal level.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for many years, ever since I first learned about the program,” said Gallagher. “I want to better understand how policymakers in Washington make decisions and how the major health-related agencies operate and think. Also, I want to learn the nitty-gritty of developing an effective bill that makes it through Congress.”

Gallagher will go to Washington in September to begin a three-month orientation where she will meet with members of Congress, federal agency staff, and health advocates for an overview of the politics and processes of federal decision-making. She will then receive a full-time job assignment in a Senator’s office, where she will conduct research on health policy, develop legislative proposals, arrange hearings, and brief legislators for committee sessions and floor debates. Her Senate match will be decided after orientation; previous fellows have worked with Senators Ted Kennedy, Tom Harkin, Orrin Hatch, Tom Daschle, Paul Wellstone, Bill Bradley, Robert Byrd, Bob Dole, Hilary Clinton, and Jim Jeffords, among others.

This year’s award is groundbreaking because Gallagher is one of only a handful of non-clinical professionals ever selected for the program, which usually honors physicians or other clinicians at large teaching hospitals or medical centers. Her public health background, which includes over two decades of large-scale projects to prevent violence and unintentional injury, will enable her to be a strong voice for prevention in Washington.

She came to EDC in 1990 to form the Children’s Safety Network, a national resource center focused on preventing childhood and adolescent injury, which is a significant but under-recognized public health problem. In 1997 she served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Injury Prevention and Control, a national body charged with making recommendations for developing the field of injury prevention and reducing the burden of injury in America. She co-authored Injury Prevention and Public Health: Practical Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies, a textbook for public health students and practitioners. Her previous policy efforts include overseeing the development of the National Action Plan for Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention, overseeing the American School Health Association’s Task Force on Injury Prevention, and leading numerous efforts to improve national and state level health data sources on causes of injuries. She also assisted the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to develop consumer product safety regulations for firearms.

Gallagher views the opportunity as a unique learning experience. “My objective is to be open-minded, to learn as much as I can about the way the system works,” she said. “If I have an agenda, it’s to make sure public health is better understood by policymakers. Most people don’t understand what public health is, or what the approach is. Recently, with heightened concerns about bio-terrorism and SARS, people are starting to understand more about it. Normally, however, public health is invisible until the system breaks down.”

RWJ Fellows also commit to bring what they learn back to their institutions. After her year in DC, Gallagher will return to EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs to lead policy initiatives and enhance the organization’s ability to influence national policy in health and education. She also will work with the State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association to engage their members in health policy-related activities within their respective states.

"For the 20-plus years that I have known Sue Gallagher, she has been a tireless force for change to protect the public's health,” said Cheryl Vince Whitman, senior vice president of Education Development Center (EDC) and director of Health and Human Development Programs (HHD). “A few years from now, without a doubt, we will look back on this fellowship opportunity for Sue as a catalytic event, not only for her professionally, but also organizationally. She will lead our efforts to build the organizational and staff capacity to bring the results of our work --both research and the applied experience of practitioners--to policymakers in bold and dramatic ways.”

Sue Gallagher looks forward to her year in Washington as a chance to learn, study, and contribute to health policy. “I’m eager for the chance to be where the action is, to improve my ability to make a difference.”