Jessie Gallagher ’12

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While at Allegheny Jessie traveled to Guyana with a faculty member to help Rural Area Medical provide cervical cancer screening for low income women in South America; participated in a RAM clinic in New Orleans to assist in providing basic dental, medical, and cancer screening for domestic uninsured, spent a semester in Ecuador with an internship placement at a rural clinic assisting with maternal and newborn delivery, care.  Conducted her comp interviewing Amish midwives about birthing practices, prenatal care, and estimating incidence of Amish low birth weight babies.

She worked with AmericorpsVISTA, with a placement in Erie at Mayfront Maritime Center, a phenomenal non-profit developed by an Allegheny alum that provides sailing instruction programming for mentally and physically challenged students, and provides and alternative high school completion program for high risk youth in Erie County School District by teaching physics, math, history, language skills, etc. by teaching boat building, navigation, and maritime studies. Most of their students are refugees or new Americans who have not been effectively placed in the mainstream public education system.  She then focused on empowerment of girls working at Girl Scouts of America in Edinboro.  She recently moved back to the Bay Area, in California, and is currently working for the SCPA.  Jess’ primary interest is maternal and child health, but she also has strong interests in gender equity and empowerment of girls and women.