Faculty & Staff Directory

Thomas Gallagher

Dean & Professor

Contact

Phone
406-243-7801
Fax
406-243-7899
Email
Thomas.Gallagher@umontana.edu

Personal Summary

Tom Gallagher serves as Dean at Missoula College and Point of Contact (POC) Director for Cybersecurity Center of Academic Excellence (CAE2Y) at Missoula College. Tom has been a professor of Information Technology and Computer Science at Missoula College, University of Montana since 2001. Prior to coming to UM, Tom served in the roles of Technology Director and System Administrator. He holds a doctoral and masters degree in Education Leadership from the University of Montana, masters degree in Computer Science from Western Washington University, and baccalaureate degree in Mathematics from Carroll College. His dissertation is entitled Baccalaureate Time-to-Degree for Montana University System Two-year College Transfer Students.

Education

  • Ed.D. Education Leadership, University of Montana
  • M.Ed. Education Leadership, University of Montana
  • M.S. Computer Science, Western Washington University
  • B.A. Mathematics, Carroll College

Research Interests

Tom's research interests span a variety of education, leadership, technology, healthcare, and security topics. He is currently conducting a higher education leadership study involving time-to-degree for baccalaureate degree students beginning their academic journey at two-year colleges in Montana.

He is interested in undergraduate research overseeing student projects involving security, electronic health records, and sustainable energy. Since 2011, he has supervised the following undergraduate research projects:

  • Rodriguez Fernandez, J.A. (2015). Analysis of Recent DDoS Attack: an Application of Mirkovic and Peng Taxonomies. Paper presented at the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UM-CUR). Missoula MT
  • Klein, R. (2014). Generating the demographic attributes of the realistic synthetic electronic health record (RS-EHR). Poster presented at the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UM-CUR). Missoula MT.
  • Pellerin, L. (2012). Sustainable computing through desktop virtualization. Poster presented at the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UM-CUR). Missoula MT.
  • Anderson, C. (2011). Energy conservation study of student computing facilities at the university of montana.  Symposium conducted at the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UM-CUR). Missoula MT.

Tom is one of the orginal co-developers of the curricula for the AAS degree in Sustainable Energy Technology at Missoula College. The Energy Technology Program introduces students to the full suite of energy systems and technologies—traditional and renewable—and prepares them for careers in the rapidly expanding sustainable energy industry.

Projects

Tom is a founding member of the Health Informatics Knowledge and Engineering Research (HIKER) international research group based at the University of Montana and Massey University, NZ. HIKER's primary focus has been work in securing patient personal health information (PHI) using the Realistic Synthetic Electronic Health Record (RS-EHR) for secondary use. The RS-EHR resulted from research efforts undertaken with Dr. Kuda Dube while Tom was on a 2013 faculty exchange at Massey University. The collaboration resulted in a position paper and Springer LNCS chapter entitled Approach and Method for Generating Realistic Synthetic Electronic Healthcare Records for Secondary Use Since that time, Tom has continued collaborations with Kuda and Scott McLaughlin in co-authoring several publications related to securing the EHR.

HiKER has recently partnered in several new collaborations including work with the MiTRE corporation on the Synthea project. Synthea and CoMSER are both working prototypes aimed at developing RS-EHRs using the FHIR standard.

Field of Study

Educational Leadership, Computer Science, Mathematics, Sustainable Energy & Conversion, Health Informatics

Selected Publications

McLachlan, S., Dube, K., & Gallagher, T. (2016, October). Using the CareMap with Health Incidents Statistics for Generating the Realistic Synthetic Electronic Healthcare Record. In Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), 2016 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 439-448). IEEE.

McLachlan, S., Dube, K., Gallagher, T., & Simmonds, J. A. (2015, October). Supporting Preliminary Decisions on Patient Requests for Access to Health Records: An Integrated Ethical and Legal Framework. In Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 443-448). IEEE.

Gallagher, T.P. (2015). Baccalaureate Degree Completion Time of Students at the Two-Year College of the University Of Montana. Poster presented at the University of Montana Conference on Graduate Research. Missoula MT

Gallagher, T.P. & Shen, X. (2014).  Successes, Challenges and Opportunities: Delivering STEM Education at a Liberal Arts University. Roundtable discussion delivered at the STEMtech Conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College. Denver, CO.

Dube, K., & Gallagher, T. (2014). Approach and Method for Generating Realistic Synthetic Electronic Healthcare Records for Secondary Use. In Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems (pp. 69-86). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Gallagher, T. P. (2013). Integrating sustainability curriculum through green it. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Foundation for IT Sustainability International Green IT Awareness Week Conference QLD Australia

Gallagher, T. P. (2013). Educating professionals to support it in the clinical health environment of the usa. Symposium conducted at the Massey University SEAT Seminar Series. Massey University NZ.

Gallagher, T.P. (2012, March) Even technology can be green. Missoulian retrieved from http://missoulian.com/business/technology/tom-gallagher-even-technology-can-be-green/article_96c51930-71d8-11e1-b5af-001871e3ce6c.html

Gallagher, T.P., Delaney, A., McLean, K. (2012). Building an Education Program for Qualified Health IT Professionals. Poster presented at the University of Montana Graduate Research Conference. Missoula MT.

Gallagher, T.P. (2011). The science digital photography. Symposium conducted at the Education Technology Conference. Missoula MT.

Gallagher, T.P., Crepeau, J., McHugh, M. (2010). Engaging freshmen online learners. Symposium conducted at the Extended Learning Institute -The Montana University System. Missoula MT.

Gallagher, T.P. (2010). Creating classroom multimedia with windows movie maker. Symposium conducted at the Education Technology Conference. Missoula MT.

Gallagher. T.P. (2004). Privacy and the responsibility of it professionals. Symposium conducted at the Practical Ethics Center Seminar Series. Missoula MT.

Specialized Skills

  • CompTIA, A+ Certified Professional
  • CompTIA, Network+ Certified Professional
  • CompTIA, Green IT Certificate
  • Microsoft, Certified System Administrator
  • Stanford Center for Professional Develpment, Sustainable Energy Conversion & Storage
  • State of Montana, Educator Endorsements: Class 3 Administrator, Class 1 Professional Teacher - Secondary (5-12) Mathematics & Computer Science

International Experience

Visiting Faculty, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology (2013) Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Honors / Awards

  • Division of Student Affairs Faculty Award - Outstanding Service to Students (2015, 2014, 2008, 2004), Four-time recipient. The University of Montana
  • Faculty Merit Recipient (2011, 2005) Two-time recipient. The University of Montana
  • Tenure Appointment (2007) Applied Computing & Electronics, The University of Montana
  • Technology Leadership in Education Award (2000) Ohana Foundation, Honolulu HI