Brian Gallagher is a nonprofit executive. He is the former president and CEO of United Way Worldwide. [1]
Gallagher was born in Chicago, Illinois. [2] He was raised in Hobart, Indiana, where he was one of six children. [3] His father was a plumber and his mother was a homemaker who reupholstered chairs for extra income. [3]
In 1981, he graduated from Ball State University with a degree in social work [4] and started with the United Way as a management trainee. [5] In 1992, he received his MBA from Emory University, and in 2003 Ball State University awarded Gallagher an honorary Doctor of Humanities. [4] [3]
After working for United Way for 21 years (with the last five at the United Way in Columbus), Gallagher was appointed to be the President and CEO of the United Way of America in 2002. [3] He held this position he held until 2009 when United Way of America and United Way International joined to form United Way Worldwide. [6]
In January 2017, he was appointed by then-Governor of Indiana Mike Pence as a trustee of his alma mater Ball State University for a term lasting until December 31, 2020. [7]
In March 2021, Gallagher resigned from United Way following allegations that United Way Worldwide retaliated against employees for reporting sexual harassment. [8] [9] Three female employees had filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging misconduct and retaliation after they filed their complaints. [10] One of the woman alleged Gallagher fired her as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by another unnamed executive. [8] [11] A United Way Worldwide commissioned investigation found no “actionable harassment, discrimination, or retaliation” at the organization, but the women who filed the complaints called those findings into question. [9] [10] Gallagher said of the allegations: “There is no evidence of a toxic or hostile culture. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, just like almost any other workplace.” [10] [12]
United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual United Ways mobilize a single fundraising campaign to raise money for various nonprofits, with most donations coming through payroll deductions.
In United States labor law, a hostile work environment exists when one's behavior within a workplace creates an environment that is difficult or uncomfortable for another person to work in, due to illegal discrimination. However, a working environment that is unpleasant and frightening for the victim due to sexual advances that have been denied by the victim, is what constitutes hostile work environment sexual harassment. Common complaints in sexual harassment lawsuits include fondling, suggestive remarks, sexually-suggestive photos displayed in the workplace, use of sexual language, or off-color jokes. Small matters, annoyances, and isolated incidents are usually not considered to be statutory violations of the discrimination laws. For a violation to impose liability, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to a reasonable person. An employer can be held liable for failing to prevent these workplace conditions, unless it can prove that it attempted to prevent the harassment and that the employee failed to take advantage of existing harassment counter-measures or tools provided by the employer.
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.
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NPR, full name National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the United States of America.
Rape in Egypt is a criminal offense with penalties ranging from lifetime sentence to capital punishment. Marital rape is legal. By 2008, the U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take place every year, although according to the activist Engy Ghozlan (ECWR), rapes are 10 times higher than the stats given by Interior Ministry, making it 200,000 per year. Mona Eltahawy has also noted the same figure (200,000), and added that this was before the revolution.
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Michael Oreskes is an American journalist who worked at the New York Daily News and for 20 years at The New York Times. Oreskes later became the vice president and senior managing editor at the Associated Press before joining NPR as senior vice president of news and editorial director in 2015. Oreskes was ousted in 2017 amid allegations of sexual harassment.
#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke. The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" is meant to empower those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
The Weinstein effect is a phenomenon in which sexual harassment allegations of powerful figures get disclosed.
Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably Christine Blasey Ford, Charlotte Bennett, Vanessa Tyson, Chloe Caras, and accusers of Congressmen Pat Meehan and Eric Massa, and whistleblowers facing retaliation, including most recently Dr. Rick Bright. Katz's primary practice areas at her firm are employment and whistleblower law, where she represents victims of workplace discrimination and retaliation.
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Douglas Holden Wigdor is a founding partner of the law firm Wigdor LLP, and works as a litigator in New York City, specializing in anti-discrimination law. Wigdor is best known for representing seven victims of alleged sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein, the hotel maid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, over twenty employees at Fox News in sexual harassment and discrimination cases, and NFL coaches Brian Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton in a 2022 class action lawsuit against the National Football League alleging racist and discriminatory practices against Black coaches.
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