YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. | Accomplished retired veteran Wayne McCullough will be the new Assistant Athletic Director for Facilities and Game Operations, Athletic Director Aaron Bessey announced today.

McCullough served as the Environment of Care and Safety Coordinator at Catawba Valley Medical Center for the past four years. He coordinated actions and policies/management plans related to environmental safety, emergency management, life safety, security, risk management, worker safety, utility management, biotech, and infection prevention. Additionally, McCullough handled over three hundred annual collaborations with hospital department leadership staff, leading to a better patient, visitor, and staff experience.

Wayne's hard work led to multiple accomplishments at the medical center, but two stand out from the rest. In 2022, The Joint Commission survey achieved zero findings for responsible/hazardous areas through a combination of individual and team collaborations. McCullough also presented a safety proposal to senior leaders, defended his position, attained non-budgeted funding, and built a new hospital helipad as Project Manager.

"I am very honored and thrilled to join the Mountain Lion family," said McCullough. "I have been very impressed with everything and everyone I've encountered so far. My top priority is to ensure safe and well-kept facilities for all users, and to offer our wonderful community with the best experience for the entire family from the time they enter campus until they depart." 

"We're excited to have Wayne joining our administrative team with a focus on facilities and game-day operations," added Athletic Director Aaron Bessey. "His work ethic and leadership experience will serve our coaches, student-athletes, and the community as a whole very effectively."

Prior to working at Catawba Valley Medical Center, McCullough was a group fitness coach at LEAN Fitness Systems from 2017 to 2020. McCullough coached functional fitness classes in large and small group settings. He also helped with customer service to provide the best possible experience at LEAN Fitness Systems.

McCullough spent 26 years in the Military, rising up the ranks and working a variety of roles. He started out as an Air Traffic Controller for the Tennessee National Guard. He worked in this role for seven years and provided for the safe, expeditious, and orderly flow of rotary and fixed-wing traffic, supervised the work of junior staff and controllers for optimal team operations and ensured zero near misses or incidents during his tenure.

After his time as an Air Traffic Controller, McCullough filled the role of Attack Helicopter Master Aviator for 13 years. He conducted training and combat missions in the AH-64D Apache Longbow Attack Helicopter. Wayne flew 5,000 total and 3,000 combat hours with no accidents and trained well over six hundred aviators.

In his final six years in the military, served as the Director of Aviation Night Vision and Thermal optics for two years before shifting to be the Aviation Systems Integrator at Fort Bragg. McCullough was the Aviator Systems Integrator for four years until he retired from service in September 2017.

McCullough graduated from Columbia College of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

Wayne McCullough will start in the Enchanted Valley on October 1^st.