Tanya Gallagher Is Honored as First Nugent Professor
(L-R) Tanya Gallagher, Dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences and first Timothy J. Nugent Professor in Rehabilitation Research, and Dr. Timothy J. Nugent, founder of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services.
Dr. Tanya Gallagher was named the first Timothy J. Nugent Professor in Rehabilitation Research in a ceremony held on May 6. Funded by donations from friends and alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences and the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES), the professorship honors Dr. Timothy Nugent, the founder and first director of DRES whose vision, creativity, and drive changed the world for people with disabilities. Founded in 1948 to help World War II veterans with disabilities take advantage of GI Bill benefits, DRES was the first disability support program in higher education and remains the most groundbreaking.
Dr. Gallagher is internationally renowned for her studies of language development, language disorders, and treatment outcomes. After completing all three of her degrees in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Illinois, she held faculty and administrative positions in speech and hearing science departments and medical schools at the University of Michigan and McGill University before returning to Illinois as Dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences. She directed the Disability Research Institute in AHS from 2000 through 2011, and initiated the establishment and was the first director of the Center on Health, Aging, and Disability. Dr. Gallagher is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, which awarded her Honors of the Association, its highest level of recognition. As the current President of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, she is a representative to the World Health Organization and contributed to WHO’s World Report on Disability. Bringing Dr. Timothy Nugent’s vision full circle, she is now leading the development of the Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education.
Calling the event a meaningful and truly humbling occasion, Dr. Gallagher noted that it exemplified what makes the University of Illinois special, and that is its people. Two people who deeply affected her personal and professional growth, she said, were her advisor Tom Shriner and Timothy Nugent. She began working with Dr. Shriner in his laboratory as an undergraduate, and he made it possible for her to pursue master’s and Ph.D. degrees with funding. “He taught me many things,” she said, “but the most important thing was that the greatest gift you can give someone is empowering them to reach beyond their comfort zone.” While she heard a great deal about Tim Nugent as a student at Illinois, Dr. Gallagher said it wasn’t until she returned as Dean that she realized the full extent of his accomplishments and what it took to achieve them. “I’ve learned an important lesson from Tim, that progress is not always a straight line but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” she said.