M-CASTL is pleased to announce that Nancy Ambrose "Amby" Gallagher has been named the 2008 M-CASTL Student of the Year. As winner of the award, Ms. Gallagher will receive $1,000 and the cost of attendance at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. At TRB, Ms. Gallagher will attend the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) awards banquet and will receive a certificate from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Ms. Gallagher is a PhD student in the U-M School of Nursing and is currently working on her dissertation, “Environmental Influences on Walking in Older, Urban, African American Adults.” Her research aims to identify the neighborhood environmental determinants of walking in older African American adults living in urban settings. Despite the benefits of regular physical activity, most adults over age 65 do not participate in any leisure-time physical activity. Ms. Gallagher's research will examine the unique challenges that older adults may face in navigating their physical environment, as well as the influences on their choice to use walking or public transit as alternatives to automobile transportation.

Ms. Gallagher currently works as a research assistant at the U-M School of Nursing, and is a registered adult nurse practitioner at Ann Arbor Family Practice. She holds Master degrees in clinical research training from the U-M School of Public Health and in community health nursing from the U-M School of Nursing, as well as a Bachelor degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing. She is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Nurses Association, the Midwest Nursing Research Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. She is also the first recipient of the Patricia F. Waller Scholarship.