Interview with Shirley Gallagher

Our interview guest this week is Dr Shirley Gallagher, currently secretary of Guardian Toastmasters in Cork. Here is Shirley's bio: Dr Shirley Gallagher is a big picture sustainability thinker. She is known for helping companies and government agencies to decarbonise their systems. Dr Gallagher is a Researcher with IMR, Chairperson of the Cork based Environmental Charity, CEF, an EU Climate Ambassador, a Climate Reality Leader and a sustainability consultant. Shirley initially became interested in environmental issues after the disastrous Chernobyl explosion (1986). This interest led her to gaining a PhD (Ulster University 1995) in the management and measurement of contaminants in a brown field site ‘An Investigation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in a Belfast Gasworks Site’. Shirley is an ISO auditor, specialising in testing, calibration, quality, Health & Safety, energy and environmental standards for private and government agencies. Shirley remains passionate about science in every sense of the word. One of the reasons she joined Toastmasters (2012) was to engage, enthuse and educate people in climate change. She has coordinated and led numerous projects within Toastmasters including an 8-week Speechcraft (Public Speaking Course). Developing a methodology to upskill environmental professionals in the green economy began in 2005, when she began organising conferences on behalf of the Environmental Sciences of Ireland (ESAI). Co-founding Enviroskillnet in 2007 and after the recession, pivoting to Greenworks Ireland as a consortium in green skills development, along with facilitation for Cork Environmental Forum (CEF) in Global Action Plan, and greener living programmes. Her interest in HVAC and building performances is as a result of climate awareness and the need for energy efficiency in buildings. She has worked as part of the business development teams in insulation firms Grainger Energy Solutions and Ecocel and with the HVAC company, Sirus, Dr Gallagher worked on the Horizon Europe R&D project, IMPRESS as lead, developing business models, software development, measuring building performance before, during and after deep retrofits. As well as developing a software system for managing F-Gas recovery as part of the maintenance and end of life procedures.