Brian Gallagher reflects on how his West Virginia roots guided his career

When Brian A. Gallagher, RPh, JD, told his mother he’d been appointed to the West Virginia Legislature in 1989, her reaction surprised him.

“She kind of shook her head,” Gallagher said. “She joked, ‘Brian, you started out as a pharmacist. Then you became a lawyer. Now, you’ve been appointed to the legislature. I think the next stop for us might be jail.’”

“She was really good at keeping people in their place in a good-natured way.”

Gallagher has come a long way from his idyllic upbringing in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, with his parents, B.A. and Nan Gallagher, who immigrated to the United States from Ireland.

He was a Boy Scout who played baseball and football, wrestled, and ran track but notes he “wasn’t one of the top athletes by any stretch of the imagination.”

“It was small town Americana,” Gallagher said. “It was a wonderful place to grow up. Everybody took care of everybody else. A lot of people there really molded my character.”

Last month, Gallagher marked the end of his decades-long career working in the legal, medical and pharmacy fields, most recently as chief of government affairs & health care policy for the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. In addition to that role, he also worked as a Clinical Assistant Professor in Marshall University’s schools of medicine and pharmacy, focusing on law and ethics in medicine.

“I’ve been at Marshall 11 years and been delighted every minute of it,” Gallagher said.

Finding open doors of opportunity

On paper, Gallagher’s life path looks pretty straightforward, but his life’s goals weren’t always clearly laid out before him.

“If a door would open up in front of me, I was never afraid to walk through it and see what was on the other side,” Gallagher said.

After he graduated from Greenbrier East High School in 1975, he originally majored in wildlife management at West Virginia University, with the goal of working for the Department of Natural Resources.

While he had a passion for the outdoors, Gallagher realized he didn’t want to make his favorite hobby into a career, so he turned to a reliable source: His family.

“Money’s not the biggest motivator for me, but I needed to get a job where I could pay off my student loans,” Gallagher said. “I was talking to my cousin about it one night, and she said she was going into pharmacy school. I started looking into it, and she and I actually wound up in the same class together.”

He graduated from WVU’s School of Pharmacy in the Class of 1981, and he earned his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1984.

Gallagher worked as general counsel for West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown for 11 years.

Governor Gaston Caperton appointed Gallagher to the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing part of Monongalia County in 1989, which became a formative experience for him both personally and professionally.

Gallagher was in the legislature at a time when laws regarding health care surrogacy and medical power of attorney were taking shape across the country. As chair of the House Insurance and Banking Committee, Gallagher, with his background in law and medicine was uniquely situated to help establish those legal and ethical standards in West Virginia.

The law that he had a heavy hand in crafting and sponsored in 1993 remains in effect today with only a few technical updates over the years.

“It’s still working to help people navigate health care when they are unable to make medical decisions for themselves,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher also considers the work he did on the West Virginia Pharmacy Practice Act among his legislative accomplishments.

“During my time there, I was number one in terms of total bills passed,” he said. “If I put my name on a bill, I worked for it and focused on pragmatic changes to improve the lives of West Virginians.”

After eight years of service, Gallagher went to work as the Director of Pharmacy and Regulatory Affairs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores in Washington, D.C.

He moved around the eastern United States working as General Counsel for TechRx, Inc., Vice President of Risk Management and Governance for NDCHealth, and as Rite Aid’s Vice President for Regulatory Compliance.

Just before he returned to West Virginia, Gallagher worked as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the American Pharmacists Association.

Coming home

In the first decade of the new millennium, Gallagher decided he was ready to return to West Virginia, and he knew just who to call.

“I called Dr. Kevin Yingling and told him I was interested in coming back to West Virginia,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher and Yingling, now president and CEO of Marshall Health Network, were in the same class at the WVU School of Pharmacy and had stayed in touch throughout the years.

His timing couldn’t have been better for the development of the Marshall University School of Pharmacy. Yingling, who would go on to serve as the founding dean of the School of Pharmacy, brought on Gallagher during development of the School of Pharmacy, which opened in 2011. Gallagher would go on to spend a year as interim dean of the pharmacy school between 2018 and 2019.

Gallagher helped establish the outpatient clinical pharmacy and residency programs at Marshall Health, and his legislative efforts also assisted with securing a pathway through the West Virginia Legislature for Cabell Huntington Hospital to acquire St. Mary’s Medical Center in 2017.

At the same time, Gallagher has represented the pharmacy and medical school’s interests with the state and federal governments, ensuring the Marshall community is able to share its collective expertise and effort throughout the state and country. He also has served as the chair of the West Virginia Governor's Council on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment from 2018 to present.

“Dr. Gallagher has positively impacted students, our healthcare system and West Virginia,” Yingling said.  “I am fortunate to be a long-term colleague and friend of Brian’s.”

Looking back, Gallagher credits his personal open-door policy for leading him down a path where he could both learn from some of the best and use that to help other people.

“That’s how I was raised in Greenbrier County, and when I came back to Huntington, I was welcomed here and people wanted to help me succeed.”

Gallagher and his wife, Kathy, have plans to travel before retiring to Florida.

FEATURE STORY by Lacie Pierson
 

Date Posted: Monday, August 5, 2024