Katy McCullough, MA, is a co-principal investigator and an associate director with the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center within the Trohanis Technical Assistance Projects at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG).

As part of our FPG profile series, we recently spoke with McCullough to learn more about her work at FPG. Here’s what she had to say.

Tell us a bit about your professional journey―and what brought you to FPG?

I joined FPG in June of 2004. I had been working at Radford University in southwest Virginia as a local system manager of an early intervention program for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. My supervisor at the time, Jaye Harvey, Ed.D, who I greatly admired, mentioned to me that her dream job would be to work at “NECTAC” ―the National Early Childhood TA Center, which is now known as ECTA. I was intrigued to learn more—I went to their web site and saw that they were hiring two TA specialists. I loved the focus on state system improvement at the national level, so thought I’d take a chance and apply. I have a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and had prior experience in child welfare and wilderness therapy programs for adolescents.

What do you do at FPG—describe your job, walk us through a typical day, and tell us about the projects you're currently working on.

I work on three national technical assistance (TA) centers (ECTA, DaSy and CIFR) that support the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for young children with disabilities and their families in all states and U.S territories. I have expertise around finance and tend to focus my TA on fiscal management, data collection and use, and federal compliance. For ECTA I also serve as a member of our leadership team and support our Web Team with communications, product development, Web presence, and online accessibility.  I spend most of my day at the computer on Zoom or Teams, pivoting between internal staff meetings, client groups and federal partnerships.  

What do you like most about your job?

I have a strong desire to help people. Providing information, resources, or a strategy that helps someone do their job more effectively is really gratifying to me. I feel that to do that well, you must make connections with people and build trusting relationships over time to understand their context and the challenges they are trying to address. I feel so fortunate to work with really smart, kind and funny people on a daily basis.  

What do you find most challenging?

One of the things I find most challenging about my job is the rigorous meeting schedule.  It’s not uncommon to have back-to-back Zoom meetings from 7:30 am until 6:00 pm. I’m learning to build thinking and writing time into my schedule, but these can be hard to prioritize given other pressures that emerge throughout the day.

How does your work further the mission of FPG?

TA provision under IDEA helps to support the connection between research and practice implementation.  At ECTA, our goal is to support state IDEA Part C and Part B, Section 619 programs in developing high-quality, effective, and sustainable state and local systems, to implement access, services, and supports for all children with disabilities and their families that result in positive outcomes. 

What do you hope to have accomplished five years from now?

Five years from now, my hope is that TA at FPG continues to thrive and demonstrate positive impacts on state and local systems that are stable and sustainable.