James J. Gallagher, Ph.D., is William R. Kenan Professor Emeritus, School of Education, FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Gallagher received his doctorate in child and clinical psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. His early work was at the Dayton Hospital for Disturbed Children and in the Psychology Clinic at Michigan State University. He spent 13 years at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois conducting research on children with brain injury and mental retardation and on the education of highly gifted children. In 1967, Dr. Gallagher became the first director of the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped (now the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education), which was designed to carry out the new federal legislation on children with disabilities. He provided leadership for this program as the first major initiative for the federal government in special education. In 1970, he became a Kenan Professor and Director of the Frank Porter Graham Center (now the FPG Child Development Institute) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This multidisciplinary center conducted a wide variety of intervention research programs with young children. Dr. Gallagher also served from 1977 to 1986 as Director of the Bush Institute for Child and Family Policy, which introduced students to the analysis and development of policy for children. Dr. Gallagher has written or edited more than 15 books and monographs and more than 150 articles on a broad range of topics in the field of exceptional children. He co-wrote the basic textbook Educating Exceptional Children, now in its 11th edition (Kirk, Gallagher, Anastasiow, & Coleman, 2006, Houghton Mifflin). Dr. Gallagher has been president of the Council for Exceptional Children, Vice President for Education of the American Association on Mental Retardation, President of the National Association for Gifted Children, and President of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. In addition to receiving numerous awards, Dr. Gallagher was awarded the Gold Medal for Life Achievement in Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association in 2005. Driving Change in Special Education reflects his continuing interest in public policy for children and families.