McCullagh selected for national public works fellowship program

With thousands of seasoned public works engineers retiring annually, the American Public Works Association has initiated a fellowship program to give veteran engineers an opportunity to share their expertise with their younger colleagues before they leave the profession.

At APWA's annual International Public Works Congress and Exposition in Denver last month, 96 veteran public works engineers were selected for the organization's new Public Works Leadership Fellow program. Paul McCullagh, director of Laurel's Public Works Department, was included in that group and was the only public works official chosen for the program from Maryland.

"I was surprised to be chosen because of the number of top people I was competing against (nationwide), who were selected based on qualifications," said McCullagh who received an undergraduate degree in engineering from Oklahoma State University and a master's in business and financial management from the Naval Postgraduate School. "I was pleased to be selected because it brings recognition to Laurel and Maryland. The fact that I'm on the city's staff speaks well for the qualifications for people working in the Public Works Department."

Applicants were nominated by their local public works association chapters for consideration by officials at the Kansas City-based APWA, which since 1937 has provided educational, leadership and management training opportunities for all levels of public works employees. The fellowship candidates had to have at least 20 years of executive professional experience in public works in order to be considered for the mentoring program.

McCullagh's experience includes being regional director for Unisys Corp.'s engineering and construction projects, and a vice president in real estate development for American Communications Systems Inc. He commanded a 700-man unit in the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy's Construction Battalion, oversaw the construction of a $50 million seaport in Vietnam, has taught leadership and management skills to engineers in Iran and has served as chief advisor on construction projects for NATO and theJoint Chiefs of Staff.

When McCullagh retired from ACSI in 1999, he was a volunteer construction manager with Laurel's Public Works Department. In 2002, he was hired full time as the department's project manager; and in 2007, he became the city's public works director.

All of the APWA fellows will be required to complete the organization's mentoring training program and commit to spending 40 hours a year mentoring one or more up-and-coming public works professionals. The APWA fellows are also required to keep a detailed journal of their mentoring activities.

"The national organization's formal mentoring process will be consistent for all fellows across the board. With so many of us retiring each year, they (APWA officials) want those with knowledge and insight to pass their expertise to the next generation of public works workers," said McCullagh, who sits on the group's regional board of directors. "There are 29,000 APWA members, but many are new to public works."

Sharing extensive experience

Although the formal requirements of the mentoring program are still being developed by APWA, McCullagh has definite ideas of the type of experience he would like to share with those he mentors through the fellowship.

"One of the things I see in a lot of young, intelligent engineers is that they have new ideas, but to be successful, you have to be able to sell those ideas and proposals to your superiors or they don't get implemented. I want to work with them on that," he said. "Many good ideas also go nowhere because of a lack of funding, and I've had success in Laurel in doing this. There's a lot of money out there, but there's great need, too, so you have to be able to express those ideas in writing and communicate why your idea should be funded. I can help them with that."

McCullagh was successful in getting a grant from the state to fund the new streetlights on Main Street when city funds were not available for the project. In addition, he said he worked on a Community Development Block Grant submitted to the county that paid for road repairs on Lafayette Avenue and secured a $100,000 CDBG grant last week for sidewalk and curb repair work on Bowie Road.

McCullagh said he is happy APWA launched the mentorship program because it will give him and other public works executives an opportunity to share their extensive experience in the field with younger public- and private-sector public works professionals.

"For me personally, I've promoted mentoring as something that those of us blessed with success should do," he said. "I've had lots of success in my career, so helping others and passing on what I've learned is important to me. I feel a responsibility to do that, so it's an honor to be selected in this program."