Author and U.S. Army veteran Matt Gallagher spoke to students in UMKC's Bridging the Gap course on February 2nd about his novel Youngblood and his experiences in the army. Gallagher is the author of several books, including the novel Daybreak and a memoir of his service in Iraq titled Kaboom. His website notes, "In January 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren read Matt’s Boston Globe op-ed “Trump Rejects the Muslims Who Helped Us” on the U.S. Senate Floor, and his work in March 2022 helping train a civilian defense force in Lviv, Ukraine, was featured on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. Among other media, he’s appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, and he was interviewed at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan by retired general David H. Petraeus."