Julie McCulloh first encountered Jesuit education as a student at Gonzaga University. Decades later, after a career shaped by those values and years of service to Gonzaga Prep, she returns to the school as interim president. While her appointment marks a first for the school, McCulloh is focused less on the milestone and more on the community she has been part of for years.
Julie McCulloh came to Gonzaga University looking for a Catholic education. During those years, she was introduced to the Jesuit worldview, though she wouldn't fully appreciate it until much later.
As a college student, she had not yet grasped the depth and significance of that vision.
"I think the lessons of Jesuit education really continued to sink in after I graduated," she says. "I understood them better when I was in the world than I did at school."
Those lessons shaped her career, her family, and ultimately led her to Gonzaga Prep, where she has accepted the role of interim president, the first woman interim or otherwise.
Mention the milestone, and she quickly redirects the conversation.
"My experience since I first got to know this place is that there have been generations of strong women leading in this institution in tons of ways." She points to teachers, administrators, board members, and mothers whose influence has long shaped Gonzaga Prep. In her mind, her presidency is less about breaking new ground than taking her place among the women who have quietly helped shape the school for decades.
Raised in Helena, Montana, McCulloh grew up with a practical outlook and a strong sense of community. When she arrived at Gonzaga University, Catholicism was familiar. The Jesuit tradition was not.
Some of the first people she met—people who would become lifelong mentors—were Gonzaga Prep graduates and alumni of other Jesuit high schools. "They all understood the Jesuit world. But for me, it was just all new."
Two Jesuit priests, both Gonzaga Prep alumni, became especially influential. Fr. Frank Costello `39 and Fr. Pat Ford `59 introduced her to Ignatian spirituality by teaching it, but even more so by living it.
Ford also introduced her to people throughout Spokane. At the time, she didn't understand why.
"I was thinking, 'What is he doing? Why are you introducing me to people?'” Later, she realized he was showing her the power of relationship. After graduating from Gonzaga, McCulloh joined the university's admission office while completing her MBA. What began as a receptionist position eventually grew into a career that spanned nearly three decades.
An early project implementing a university-wide information system expanded McCulloh's view of Gonzaga. Working with colleagues across campus introduced her to the relationships between admissions, advising, and student affairs. She found herself increasingly interested in understanding how the university functioned as a whole.
That's where one of her strengths emerged: seeing how individual people and individual departments contribute to something larger.
As her responsibilities grew, McCulloh never lost sight of the people she was leading. She wanted workplaces where employees could also be present for their families—as parents, spouses, and caregivers.
McCulloh credits former Gonzaga colleagues Jolanta Weber `87 and Mia Bertagnolli `86 with modeling calm, thoughtful leadership.
"Really, leaders, 80 percent of the work is managing difficult situations. You only get about 20 percent vision."
She also points to her husband, Thayne, retired Gonzaga president.
“Thayne has just a really great way of slowing people down and saying, 'How else can we see this?'"
Rather than reacting, he listens first. People, she says, respect that thoughtfulness.
During those same years, she and Thayne watched their three daughters make their way through Prep. Julie served on the Board of Trustees—eventually as board chair—and later on the Gonzaga Prep Foundation Board. Serving on both boards gave her a closer look at what sets Gonzaga Prep apart.
Ask what sets Prep apart, and she doesn't begin with programs or facilities. She talks about faculty and staff, not only for their expertise in the classroom, but for the way they invest in students as individuals. She admires the way teachers know students well enough to challenge them, encourage them, and notice when they need someone in their corner.
The result, she says, is graduates who leave with "confidence grounded in character"—young men and women who understand their gifts, "knowing how important it is to be loved so they show love. Those are the things that I hope our grads leave with.”
It is that culture—not a new agenda—that she hopes to strengthen during her year as interim president. McCulloh doesn't spend much time thinking about being the first woman to hold the office. She thinks instead about stewarding a community she has admired for decades.
And when her year concludes, she hopes people remember something far more important than who held the office. She hopes Gonzaga Prep remains confident in who it is.
“Whoever comes next, we want to be so grounded in who we are that we can welcome them with complete openness and confidence: This is who we are—all of it, the strengths and the imperfections. We are committed to getting better every day, and we have the privilege of serving these remarkable young people.”