Meet the Director
 Lori Meghan Gallagher, J.D., is the Director of the Center for Irish Studies, a Lecturer in Irish Studies and an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas. For 18 years, she practiced law at a large international law firm in Houston, Andrews Kurth LLP, where she was the chair of the civil appellate section and a partner.
She has been the Director of the Center for Irish Studies since the Center’s creation in January 2003. She received her undergraduate (English and Journalism) and law degrees from the University of New Mexico (1980, 1984). She received a postgraduate degree in Irish Literature from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in 1981 on a Rotary Foundation scholarship.
Gallagher has pioneered new Irish Studies courses on Irish and Northern Irish history, politics, law and culture, including Northern Ireland: The Conflict and the Peace; Historical and Political Perspectives on Irish Law and Culture; Irish Diaspora: Irish American Experience;and Contemporary Ireland.
Gallagher oversees the Irish Studies academic program, which includes a minor in Irish Studies and a graduate concentration in the Master in Liberal Arts program, as well as the Ireland Study Abroad Program and the Irish Studies cultural outreach program.
The Center for Irish Studies is listed as one of the top 10 Irish Studies programs in the country by IrishCentral.com. Gallagher also has received many accolades, including being named to the Global Irish 100 and Education 100 by Irish America magazine in 2009, as well as receiving the 2009 Irish American Leaders of Texas Award by Irish Echo newspaper and being selected one of the honorees for the Mayor's Gala for the 2009 Houston International Festival featuring Ireland. For more details on these awards, click here. |
