Milligan professor Daniel Cutshall combines problem-solving in the classroom with public service as a Washington County commissioner.
Many know Daniel Cutshall as an engineering professor, but he’s much more than that. Last year, he surprised his students by returning from his sabbatical to the soccer field for a Milligan alumni game. Along with his long-standing passion for soccer, Cutshall has an interest in politics, and his newest role has given him a perspective beyond the Milligan campus.
Since September, Cutshall has served as the Washington County commissioner for District 12 while taking on sabbatical from his teaching position at Milligan University. As a county commissioner, he represents residents in his district and helps make decisions about county government and community needs.
For Cutshall, the new position offers an opportunity to put his problem-solving skills to work in a different way.
“The biggest driving factor was what I perceived [as] a big and growing gap between politicians and leaders and the people they’re supposed to be serving,” Cutshall said. “And I had been frustrated by that for a long time.”
Cutshall grew up in Tennessee and attended college in South Carolina. Two of his high school teachers at Science Hill High School helped spark his interest in mathematics and engineering. During graduate school, he discovered another passion: teaching.
He realized that he enjoyed mentoring students, helping them understand difficult concepts and interacting with them beyond simply delivering a lecture.
In 2019, Cutshall joined Milligan University, where he found a position that brought together his interests in engineering and education while allowing him to return to the area where he grew up.
“I love teaching at Milligan; I don’t want to jeopardize this. This is literally my dream job,” he said.
His commitment to teaching is especially visible in the hands-on projects he helps lead. Rather than focusing only on the technical side of engineering, Cutshall looks for opportunities for students to see how their work can affect real people.
One example is the Go Baby Go project, in which students modify ride-on toy vehicles to make them accessible to children with disabilities. The vehicles can be adapted so children can drive using a joystick and buttons instead of a traditional steering wheel and foot pedal.
For Cutshall, that combination is what makes the project special. Students are not just learning how to build or modify a vehicle. They can also see the person who will benefit from their work.
He plans to take a modified Jeep to a local school to introduce students to the project and get them interested in engineering.
Another project Cutshall has helped with focuses on providing clean water to refugees in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Although he was not the project’s lead, he contributed to the technical work involving solar panels, batteries and other equipment.
Both projects reflect an important part of his approach to engineering: using technical knowledge to address people’s needs.
Cutshall did not originally plan to become a county commissioner. He was interested in serving his community but was concerned that doing so might interfere with the teaching career he had worked toward.
When he learned that the commissioner position was part-time, however, he began to see it as an opportunity to contribute to his community without giving up his work at Milligan.
The timing also worked out unexpectedly. Cutshall is currently on sabbatical, a temporary period away from regular teaching responsibilities that gives a professor time to focus on other professional work. It has allowed him to devote more attention to learning the responsibilities of his new position.
Cutshall joked that the timing reminded him that not everything in life can be planned.
He described himself as someone who likes to be organized and prepared, making the unexpected combination of a sabbatical and a new political position particularly amusing to him. He sees the timing through his faith, saying that God sometimes has a plan different from the one he expects.
Although the position is still new, Cutshall has already begun meeting with people throughout county government and community organizations to understand their work and identify areas where he might help.
Two issues that have caught his attention are hunger and homelessness. He has been learning more about the needs of people experiencing food insecurity and those without stable housing, including through conversations with people involved in local support services.
Rather than immediately deciding which projects to pursue, he wants to understand the problems first and listen to the people affected by them.
He also wants to make sure that different groups within Washington County have opportunities to be heard and represented.
That approach sounds familiar to anyone who has taken an engineering class with Cutshall. He explained that engineering is fundamentally about problem-solving: identifying an issue, gathering information, considering possible solutions and determining what might work.
He hopes to apply the same process to local government.
When an engineering project begins, the solution is not always immediately obvious. The same is true when addressing community issues, he said. Understanding the needs of the people involved is an important first step.
Cutshall is also grateful for the support he has received from Milligan colleagues and university leadership as he takes on this new responsibility. Although he expects the position to become more manageable as he settles into a routine, he knows that the beginning requires extra time to learn the system and understand the people he represents.
For Cutshall, engineering, teaching and public service may look like different paths, but they share a common thread: identifying a need, working with others and finding ways to help.
Photo: Seeger Chapel (Credit: Danielle Roberts)
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