Research Interests
- Source reduction of hazards for pollution prevention and occupational safety and health
- Providing tools and training for front line workers to make informed choices about work practices and products
- Developing research methods, training research teams, and participating in field research
- Sharps injury reduction
Education
- M.S. Ergonomics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1999
- M.S. Manufacturing Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1986
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, 1977
Biosketch
Catherine Galligan, MA is a Project Manager and Field Investigator in the Sustainable Hospitals and Home Care Program in the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at UMASS Lowell. Her recent research responsibilities include studies of home care workers (2004 – present) and a pollution prevention/ occupational safety and health project to reduce mercury in Latin American hospitals (2009-2013). Catherine has a particular interest in enabling individuals and low-resource organizations to develop technical skills and organizational capacity so that they can find, evaluate, and adopt products and practices that protect health and the environment.
Catherine has over 35 years of professional experience in occupational safety and health. Early in her career she was a manufacturing process engineer and production manager, including experience at a large medical device manufacturer. In her present role, Catherine has developed more than 25 short technical factsheets on safety and health topics, as well as co-authoring a user-friendly workbook Eliminating Mercury in Health Care: A workbook to identify safer alternatives (in Spanish and English; available online). The workbook enables low-resource hospitals or practitioners to undertake pollution prevention/occupational safety and health projects without the benefit or cost of outside assistance.