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The Woman of Merit Award recognizes leaders who demonstrate the Girl Scout values of leadership, personal achievement and service to the community. The award is given in honor of Alice Pattison Merritt, the first woman elected to the Connecticut Senate.
Galligan serves as a managing director in Deloitte & Touche’s Cyber Risk Services practice. She advises senior executives on the crisis management challenges they face and helps clients develop and execute security programs to prevent and minimize the business impact of cyber threats. Before joining Deloitte, Galligan spent 25 years as a senior special agent in the FBI.
“By being a Girl Scout, I learned about courage, confidence and character, and those three attributes have been reoccurring themes in almost every aspect of my life,” said Galligan. “As a young girl, it would have been impossible for me to imagine that someday I would be a women leader in STEM. Now, in Girl Scouting, girls are learning these skills and are encouraged to take on STEM. Girl Scouts are giving girls the opportunity to recognize that they are natural born scientists.”
Smith is a career Army officer with 30 years of military experience. She is currently the commanding general of the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training), where she is responsible for the oversight of four brigades totaling 2,500 soldiers throughout the East Coast and Puerto Rico.
“I accept this award for all the young women who don’t know what exactly they’re going to do yet,” said Smith. “I think the three values of Girl Scouting -- courage, confidence and character -- are so important. I gained those skills through experience, the same way girls do through Girl Scouting. You will use these skills you learn in Girl Scouts for the rest of your life — they are so important.”
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