Deborah Gallagher Barger, ’76, completed her bachelor’s degree in communication at Buffalo State in America’s Bicentennial year. And her career from that moment on has been historic.
In the fall of 1978, she left for Washington, DC, to pursue a career in journalism and later, a master’s degree in public administration at American University (1993). She also completed post-graduate courses at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and the University of Maryland.
In 1978, she became managing editor of the Armed Forces Journal International, a defense policy magazine. While a journalist, she wrote and published numerous
articles, traveled frequently, made three parachute jumps into the Atlantic Ocean, and flew alongside pilots and crews of an F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, and several helicopters. On the ground, she test drove the Army’s newest tank and crawled through mud pits at the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama. At sea, she landed aboard an aircraft carrier and, somewhat more precariously, hung from a ropeline to be transferred between ships heaving in the frigid North Sea. She also found time to marry fellow editor, Millard Barger.
In 1986, she decided to leave journalism for a career in government. For the next nearly 30 years, she served in senior positions at a number of federal agencies.
She worked in the Pentagon as a speechwriter, had two tours on Capitol Hill, a three-year assignment at NATO in Brussels, and a yearlong fellowship at RAND, a Washington area think tank.
During her time in government service, she won numerous awards, including recognition by President George W. Bush for her work on a Presidential Executive
Order, and by Senator Susan Collins for her work on legislation responding to the findings of the 9/11 Commission. She also received a Distinguished Service Medal at the end of her career, as well as a meritorious service award from President Barack Obama for “professionalism exemplifying the highest standards of public service.”
After retiring from the federal government in 2015, she began her encore career as a blogger and writer of historical fiction. In 2023, under the pen name Moxie
Gardiner, she published her first novel, Virgin Snow, the story of a girl growing up on the West Side of Buffalo (see Bengal Bookshelf for more information). She is currently at work on book two of the Virgin Snow trilogy.
Dedicated to inspiring the next generation, she recently established a new scholarship for journalism students—the Journalism Excellence Scholarship for incoming and current journalism students who demonstrate journalistic integrity, objectivity, and accuracy. The first recipient will be selected for the spring 2025 semester.