Deb Gallagher

PROFILE
Climate Change Director with more than 20 years’ shaping solutions, mentoring emerging leaders and leading teams to embed sustainability strategy into core operations across private sector, non-profit, academic and government sectors. Diverse skills in valuing stakeholder relationships, building bridges between decision makers, applying systems thinking approach to mitigate risk, and mobilizing multidisciplinary global teams. Subject matter expert in just transition, environmental and climate justice, systems thinking, public policy engagement, and environmental leadership.

Skills: Strategy. Innovation. Stakeholder engagement. Policy. Governance. Program & Team Leadership.
Values: Inclusive leadership. Kindness. Justice. Future focus. Grace. Flexibility. Diversity.
Traits: Mentor. Listener. Collaborator. Co-creator. Connector. Courageous. Open-hearted. Authentic.

CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), NY, NY 2021-present
Director of Climate Justice

• Innovated cutting-edge just transition and climate justice practice through designing new consulting offering merging human rights, just transition and climate strategy services, launching platform for diverse teams to collaborate, and creating a culture of listening and learning.
• Supported corporate leaders to co-create climate justice solutions with front-line communities and climate justice advocacy organizations by building an inclusive collaborative culture, leading workshops on material issues, and innovating community ownership model for the content.
• Accelerated Fortune 50s to net zero through publishing 12 open-source transformation guidebooks on policy engagement, climate justice and climate transition plans.

United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), NY, NY 2009-2023
Senior Advisor, Climate and Environment for non-binding UN pact to encourage organizations worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies and to report on their implementation; pro-bono

• Increased private sector understanding of and commitment to a Just Transition as lead researcher on development of a Just Transition Think Lab in partnership with corporate and civil society actors.
• Progressed science-based climate policy at COP 21 in Paris through partnering with World Resources Institute and leading business organizations, presenting corporate narratives that promoted positive climate policy solutions, and creating roadmap for carbon pricing leadership.
• Increased private sector engagement in climate policy through aligning employee messaging on climate, publishing open-source Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy guidebook launched at COP19, and mapping policy engagement opportunities at global, state and local levels.
• Advised business and NGO leaders through creating 2x2 framework for a combined climate and health strategy, benchmarking 10 case studies using systems thinking, and analyzing ESG materiality matrices.

Duke University, Durham, NC 2001-2022
Chair & Founder of Business and Environment Program and Professor of Environmental Policy

• Enabled change leaders to deliver sustainability strategies through training stakeholders over 10 years to leverage critical systems thinking, manage key stakeholder relationships, mitigate risk from climate change, and reduce carbon in supply chain.
• Grew pioneering professional education program from $100K to $3.5M over four years through transforming eight disparate programs into one strategic structure, launching Business and Environment offering as Program Chair, and leading five cross-functional teams of 20+.
• Enhanced quality of talent into the workforce and advanced careers of 100+ environmental leaders over 10 years by hosting speaker series with market insights from 200+ practitioners, deploying hybrid digital learning platforms, and recruiting mentors from private sector, government and NGO organizations.

Kraft Foods, Woburn, MA 1995-1997
Manager, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) of American food manufacturing and processing company

• Minimized reputational risks through leading 10 focus groups with 100 employees, community members and managers, hosting a controversial open house, creating community outreach monitoring process with hotline, and influencing buy-in from Directors at HQ to overcome safety risks.

US EPA, Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Protection and DoT, Boston MA 1993-1995
Environmental Manager on $10B Central Artery, Third Harbor Tunnel Project
Manager of award-winning Landfill Assessment and Cleanup Program and testified at Congress

EDUCATION

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Ph.D. in Public Policy and Business Strategy 1997-2002

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Masters of Public Policy 1984-1986

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Bachelors in Chemical Engineering 1975-1980

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Volunteer Leadership
• Campaign Advisor, Orts for PA Senate, 2021
• Board Member and Board Chair, Benevolence Farm, Mebane, NC, 2009-2013
• Board Member, SJF Advisors and Investors Circle, Durham, NC, 2005-2010

Selection of 50+ Public Speaking Engagements:
• Integrating Health and Environment into Business Strategy, UN General Assembly Week, 2019
• ESG Data Quality Issues, US Congressional Research Service, 2020
• Leading the Change Lecture Series, Duke University, 2021
• Climate Justice, COP 27, Sharm El-Shiekh, Egypt,2022
• Just Transition, COP 28, Dubai, UAE, 2023
• Centering Health Equity in Climate Action, COP 28, Dubai, UAE, 2023

Selection of 50+ Publications:
• Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook, SAGE, 2012
• Executive Guide to Carbon Pricing Leadership, UN Global Compact, 2015
• Climate Change Leadership as Sustainability Leadership, Journal of Leadership Studies, 2016
• Innovations in Environmental Leadership, Routledge, 2018
• Sustainable Business, Palgrave MacMillan, 2018
• Business Leadership Brief for Healthy Planet Healthy People, UN Global Compact, 2019
• Introduction to Just Transition: A Business Brief, UN Global Compact, 2022
• Calling for Action on Climate Justice at COP 27, BSR Blog, 2022
• COP 28: Tackling Fossil Fuels, and a Final Push to Keep 1.5 Alive, BSR Insights, 2023
• The translation of net-zero targets into business operations, British Accounting Review, 2024

Achievements & Awards:
• Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, Duke University, 2021
• Outstanding Academic Title: Environmental Leadership, SAGE, 2013

Languages: English (native), French (intermediate), Spanish (nascent)