Connie Gallaher: Paying it Forward

by Kathryn Lecklider

Connie Gallaher, MS, (’78, ’87 MS), first non-academic president of Ohio Dominican University, recited a list of important people: “Norm. Mary. Leonard. Marshall. Marty. Martha. Doug. Kevyn. Do you know whose names those are? What they mean?” she asked, and then proudly answered, “They’re patients I took care of in my first year. Yes, I’m a nurse.”

When first approached about the position at Ohio Dominican, a small liberal arts university in central Ohio, Gallaher was surprised. While professionally successful, she had spent her entire career in healthcare, did not have a PhD and was not Catholic. But the Ohio Dominican Presidential Transition Task Force sought a competency that Gallaher had in abundance: strong leadership.

This was not the first time someone had seen the quality in Gallaher. At 24 years old, her manager and mentor kick-started her career by asking her to take on the role of head nurse in what was then The Ohio State University Hospital medical intensive care unit, despite having four more experienced assistant nurse managers at the ready. “She said, ‘Connie, you’re a very good clinical nurse, but we have a lot of good clinical nurses. You’ve got that extra something that when people are around you, they want to be that much better,” she recalled.

From there, Gallaher’s career took off – being promoted to assistant director at 26 and then a director in short order. Her career included leadership roles such as vice president, chief nursing officer and director of patient care services at Mount Carmel East Hospital, chief nursing officer at Ohio State Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital when it opened in 2004 and chief operating officer and president at OhioHealth At Home. She intended to retire and did so briefly in February 2021, but barely two months passed before she was walking the campus of Ohio Dominican as president-designate.

Gallaher draws parallels between the issues healthcare and higher education face that she feels confident she can address: “[In the ‘80s] … healthcare didn’t want to change … it was too expensive and not getting results. Now higher ed is facing some of the same issues and they need leaders who know how to run a business all while preparing tomorrow’s leaders.”

“I don’t need my name in lights,” Gallaher said. “If I can develop people, leaders, that’s the passion.”

She credits her success and drive to her upbringing. One of four children, Gallaher grew up on a farm in Wood County, in northwest Ohio. She says her parents instilled in her the value of hard work and how to treat people, and she ultimately chose nursing because she wanted “to serve and make a difference.”

Gallaher briefly considered attending “that school up north” but was already a committed Buckeye sports fan. At Ohio State, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration and fed her healthy obsession with Buckeye football – and Woody Hayes. Many of her favorite memories from Ohio State are tied to football. During fall quarter senior year, to her horror, the dean scheduled a required course on Saturday mornings from 9 to 12 p.m. “It’s probably criminal!” Gallaher exclaimed. Due to conflicting Saturday priorities, she failed the midterm but could write “a mean essay” and made up for it during the final exam.

A die-hard fan of former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes (the two share a birthday), Gallaher remembers a commencement address Hayes gave focused on “paying forward.” It had such an impact on her that she has had the phrase “Pay it forward” hanging on her office wall ever since and tries to live it out in her life and career. On the early fall day of the interview, Gallaher donned Ohio Dominican Panthers’ football gear to show support and conduct the season-opening coin toss, but she promised to put on scarlet and gray and watch the recorded Buckeyes’ game before going to bed that night.