As a full Professor in the Department of Communication, Dr. Gallagher teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in visual and material rhetoric, rhetorical theory and criticism, communication ethics, and organizational communication. Dr. Gallagher’s primary area of publication and scholarship is rhetorical criticism, particularly of civil rights-related discourse, commemorative sites (museums and memorials), visual and material culture, and public art. She is the principle investigator of the Virtual Martin Luther King project, funded and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the North Carolina Humanities Council, the college research office, and the NC State Libraries. In addition, she has conducted research on gender and communication in engineering work teams (supported by an external grant from The Engineering Information Foundation), communication ethics, and communication education. Gallagher is the co-editor of Communicative Cities in the 21st Century and authored the introduction and an additional chapter in that collection. She has published articles in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Communication Education, Western Journal of Communication, Southern Communication Journal, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Journal of College Admission, and the Journal of Engineering Education, as well as in edited book collections. She has delivered public lectures including the Writing and Rhetoric Without Borders lecture and the President’s Free Speech lecture at DePaul University, the Hidden Humanities lecture at the University of Alabama, and the Rhetorical Leadership lecture at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and has presented numerous conference papers and served as an invited respondent and discussant at regional, national and international conferences. Her awards include the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by NC State and the university’s Board of Trustees, the Harlan Joel Gradin Award for Excellence in Public Humanities, the NC State University Libraries Faculty Award and the Robert M. Entman award for Excellence in Communication Research.
During her tenure at NC State, Professor Gallagher has served in various administrative capacities, including 3 years as Associate Department Head in the Department of Communication. At the college level, she served 2 years as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and 5 years as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs (overseeing undergraduate, graduate and interdisciplinary studies) in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In April 2017, Gallagher started her term as President of the Southern States Communication Association, a professional academic organization that supports scholars and students of communication in the Southern and Southwestern regions of the U.S. She is also active in the community, serving on the North Carolina Freedom Monument Advisory Board and Artist Liaison Committee, and consulting for a variety of organizations including the former Exploris Children’s Museum, Headstart of New Hanover County, the North Carolina League of Women Voters, and the Integral Mid-Range Users Group.
