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Shawn Gallagher was the
National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...
's Director for Nuclear Threat Reduction in the Obama Administration. Gallagher was a former professional baseball player in the Texas Rangers,
Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expa ...
, and
Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They p ...
organizations. A nuclear engineer, Gallagher was the first ever student to graduate from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
(MIT) with two degrees in nuclear engineering within four years.


United States Government

Gallagher served as the NSC Director for Nuclear Threat Reduction from June 2010 to August 2012, with primary responsibility for President Obama's nuclear security agenda including the 4-year Lockdown effort and Nuclear Security Summit process. Gallagher is credited for innovating a new form of diplomacy,
Gift Basket Diplomacy Gift basket diplomacy is an approach to multilateral negotiation aimed at pushing forward progress on a particular issue without the requirement of consensus. The policy is most often seen in United Nations style diplomatic meetings where a parti ...
, that he helped implement through the Nuclear Security Summit preparatory process and that has since been exported to other multilateral fora such as climate change and nonproliferation negotiations. Laura Holgate who was then the NSC Senior Director for WMD Terrorism and Threat Reduction worked with the White House WMD Czar
Gary Samore Gary Samore is the Crown Family Director of thCrown Center for Middle East Studiesand Professor of the Practice in Politics at Brandeis University. He formerly served as the Executive Director for Research of the Belfer Center for Science and Inter ...
to first implement the policy. Gallagher's responsibilities also included domestic nuclear energy policy, where he led the process to save several hundred million dollars on nuclear decommissioning activities within the US and was integral in securing US Government and US industry aid to Japan in response to the
Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 an ...
including the immediate delivery of UAVs to Japan assess damage without risking personnel safety. After his government career, Gallagher worked under government contracts as an advanced concepts engineer on cutting edge technologies for the defense industrial base. Technologies Gallagher worked included
quantum sensors A quantum sensor utilizes properties of quantum mechanics, such as quantum entanglement, quantum interference, and quantum state squeezing, which have optimized precision and beat current limits in sensor technology. The field of quantum sensin ...
, advanced microelectronics, human-machine system integration, and
planetary defense Asteroid impact avoidance comprises the methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted away, preventing destructive impact events. An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs ...
.


Professional Baseball

Gallagher spent seven seasons in professional baseball, including a stint on the Texas Rangers' 40-man roster in 1999. In 1998, Gallagher was named MVP of the
Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A follow ...
after becoming the first ever player to drive in 100 runs and score 100 runs in the same season. During his MVP season for the
Port Charlotte Rangers The Charlotte Rangers, based in Port Charlotte, Florida, were an American minor league baseball team that existed from 1987 through 2002. The team played at Charlotte County Stadium as a Class A Florida State League affiliate of the Texas Range ...
Gallagher hit .308 and had 26 HR, 121 RBI, 18 SB, and 111 R. Gallagher finished his career with exactly 100 home runs. The Texas Rangers drafted Gallagher in the 5th round of the 1995 Amateur Draft after a high school career where he rewrote the North Carolina State High School record book. Gallagher tied a national record with a 51 game hitting streak and another one by hitting five home runs in one game.


Softball

Gallagher was the head of the nationally-recognized Ashburn Shooting Stars youth girls softball program from 2014 to 2021, one of the largest programs in the Washington DC region. Gallagher is a vocal advocate for female sports, noting the
gender inequality Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which men and women are not treated equally. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are emp ...
between baseball and softball and attempts to close the commercial gap. His public comments on the subject have focused on female athletes playing for the love of the game, knowing there are not multi-million dollar contracts to be had like there are for male athletes.


Education

After baseball, Gallagher attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became the first student ever to earn an undergraduate and master degree in Nuclear Engineering within four years. Upon graduation, MIT turned Gallagher's thesis into a patent on a radiation detection system capable of detecting nuclear weapons in cargo containerships.Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“A System for the Detection of Concealed Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material aboard Cargo Containerships”


References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people New Hanover High School alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni American baseball players {{Improve categories, date=November 2020