Master of Science in Historic Preservation, 1999
Current Employer: City of Winston-Salem Planning Department, North Carolina

Michelle McCullough is a project planner and historic resource coordinator in the City of Winston-Salem Planning Department in North Carolina. Her job includes serving as the staff person for the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission, which oversees two historic districts, one historic overlay district, and the landmark properties in the county. She also creates technical and educational preservation awareness programs.

Previously she worked five years for ARSEE Engineering, a structural engineering firm in Fishers, Indiana, where she evaluated old building facades and recommended repairs. Her finance background came in handy when she helped with the firm's bookkeeping.

"In preservation you can do a lot of different things, work with different types of individuals and organizations and firms," she says. "It's a diverse field, and it's interesting to see the things you can do within it."

A Pennsylvania native, Michelle has an undergraduate degree in finance and political economy. Her previous professional background included work for nonprofit organizations. She says she always had an interest in historic preservation but hadn't realized she could make a living at it.

She read about Ball State University's M.S.H.P. program in Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

"It's a diverse yet comprehensive program that looks at all aspects of historic preservation, including the history of the movement, legal and planning issues, technical matters and treatments, building technology and language, and much more," she says. "It is a good program for someone who does not have a design background but has the passion for preserving our history within the built environment."

Her master's creative project at Ball State focused on the terra-cotta facade of Indianapolis School 5, and she worked with ARSEE Engineering to salvage almost 1,000 pieces of the terra-cotta tile. The facade of the school has been rebuilt inside the new Indiana State Museum.

"It is important to me to save as much as we can," she explains. "But sometimes you cannot save everything. A lot of purists want to, but by saving parts, in some cases you can at least save a portion of a structure that otherwise would have been lost forever." 

Learn more about Ball State's historic preservation degree program.