TEDx Windy City

Mari Gallagher is Principal of Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group. Clients and partners include grassroots community and civic organizations, government entities, foundations, and major international corporations. She and her firm have collaborated with the Institute of Medicine of the Academy of the Sciences, the Urban Institute, Harvard, MIT, the National YMCA, and many other organizations.

Mari is also the Founding President of the National Center for Public Research. NCforPR’s mission is to provide meaningful and unbiased data and information to improve quality of life, quality of health, and financial wellbeing for all people and communities.

Both MG and NCforPR are headquartered in Chicago.

Mari is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute on Urban Health Research at Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston.

Mari has enjoyed a national reputation for diverse, high impact projects around the country for over 20 years of professional history. Expertise includes quantitative and qualitative research projects; financial services, housing, community development, community planning, workforce issues, the economy, immigration, food deserts, and community health; market analyses, commercial site assessments and hands-on redevelopment consulting; business strategies; mapping; expert testimony, facilitation, and public forums.

Publications include “Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago” sponsored by LaSalle Bank (now Bank of America), a breakthrough study which popularized the term “food desert” across the country. MG was the first to develop a block-by-block metric for “food deserts” and “food balance” linked with health measures and has since done similar work in Detroit, rural Michigan, Louisville, Harlem, Savannah, Birmingham, Los Angeles and other areas. Mari’s work motivated Congressman Bobby Rush to address the problem of food deserts through the Farm Bill and through the mandating of a follow-on study to be completed by the USDA. Mari’s research shows that residents of food deserts die prematurely more than they would otherwise from diet-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Under Mari’s leadership, MG has provided free diabetes screenings to school age children in Richmond, Virginia, to help identify diabetic and pre-diabetic children and adolescents.

Over the last 20 years, Mari has enjoyed a colorful career. As the former executive director of a community development corporation, she led the co-development of a $75 million shopping center anchored by a full-service grocery store. The CDC secured a 5% ownership in the project and continues to receive revenue from it to support community programs. Mari also led a number of additional commercial, housing and job development and training projects, many of which won prestigious awards. She was the president of a technology company. And before launching her own firm, Mari directed a major Washington-based national research initiative aimed at identifying new ways to measure African American and Latino markets. Specialties include “below the radar” data, indexes, neighborhood report cards, and market analyses for undervalued and high-transition markets. She was one of the first researchers to identify and study the “undocumented Mexican” ITIN mortgage market.

Mari has received dozens of awards over the years for her leadership in community improvement projects from the University of Illinois, where she earned her Masters in Public Policy and Planning, the Boy Scouts of America, the American Heart Association and many other institutions. She led a research project for the Federal Reserve Board of Governor’s on Mexican immigrant banking and remittance patterns, which won a prize from a national consumer advocacy group. She was a founder and president of a soccer association that served Hispanic youth, a founder and volunteer for a homeless support network and food pantry, and active in other volunteer efforts. One of her initiatives years ago to develop a community garden in a vacant lot where a man was beaten to death received 32 media placements including House Beautiful and won an award from Chicago Mayor M. Daley. The project included a “fantasy mural” designed by former gang members.

Mari’s work continues to be covered by USA Today, National Public Radio, CNN, and many other venues. Mari also writes for the Huffington Post, which has 14 million unique visitors daily. She has been a guest speaker for various high-level forums across the country, including the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She continues to be a well-received facilitator and presenter on many diverse topics. In addition to public forums, she provides executive briefings to the heads of major corporations.

Mari lived and studied in Latin America, speaks Spanish fluently, plays chess, and is married to Northwestern University economic historian Joseph Ferrie.