Terri McCullough, the first woman to serve in a formal role as chief of staff to a House speaker, worked alongside Pelosi on big policy wins and broke a marble ceiling of her own.

By Grace Panetta, for The 19th

When Terri McCullough was a young college graduate in Northern California in the early 1990s, she knew she wanted to do good in the world somehow — and that she wanted to work for a woman. In 1991, she did just that when she landed an internship in the district office for a relatively new congresswoman representing San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi.

It would mark the start of a decades-long partnership, during which she and Pelosi, now House speaker emerita, would shape public policy around women and LGBTQ+ people. They also made history, expanding the limits of what was possible for women in an arena long dominated by White men.

Pelosi rose through the ranks of the House before shattering the “marble ceiling” and becoming the first and still only woman elected as House speaker. The second time Pelosi took the speaker’s gavel, in 2019, McCullough, too, made history as the first woman to serve as chief of staff to a House speaker in an official, paid capacity.

But now both are moving on. Pelosi, who stepped down from House Democratic leadership in 2022, announced this month that after nearly 40 years in the House, this term in Congress will be her last. McCullough is transitioning to the role of senior adviser for the rest of Pelosi’s term.

“I would work for Nancy Pelosi for the rest of my days if I could,” McCullough told The 19th in an interview. “It’s time to make a change, reluctantly, because I love this work and I love this job so much.”

In an interview with The 19th in her office at the U.S. Capitol, Pelosi brimmed with praise for McCullough. Her legacy on the Hill, Pelosi said, is “one of effectiveness, getting the job done and doing it in a way that advances the cause of policy that's good for women.”

“People really like her, and they know the confidence I have in her and anyone who she worked for would have in her, because we know of her talent, her integrity, her judgment, her confidence she has,” Pelosi said.

Early in her career, McCullough said, she worked on expanding legal services for survivors of domestic violence and promoting global reproductive rights. During Pelosi's first stint as House speaker from 2007 to 2011, McCullough led her personal office and worked on historic and complex legislation like the fight to pass the Affordable Care Act.

She said she learned many lessons from Pelosi — a vaunted legislative and political strategist known for keeping Democrats united during tough fights — on listening and fostering relationships.

“She has a standard of excellence which she demands of herself, so we all demand that of ourselves, too,” McCullough said. “So certainly I thought about that in terms of excelling and doing well in my work. But I definitely thought about excelling and doing well as a woman in my work, because there's still not enough of us in these leadership roles.”

McCullough’s time as Pelosi’s chief aide in her role as speaker from 2019 to 2023 was a tumultuous one that saw two impeachments of a sitting president, the COVID-19 pandemic and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

“I certainly came into this job as the speaker's chief of staff never anticipating I would need to be a health expert during COVID, I would need to be a security expert after January 6,” McCullough said. “These things, often you don't anticipate, but you meet the need, and you answer the call. And I feel very proud of so much of the work that we have done. And even in the most difficult times, it has been the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Democratic lawmakers and aides gave McCullough hugs and well-wishes at a send-off Thursday as they filed into the House chamber. An emotional Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top House Democratic appropriator and an early mentor to McCullough, was seen dabbing at her eyes. Rep. Dan Goldman of New York beamed as he snapped a selfie. McCullough crossed the aisle — literally — to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

When Pelosi took the floor to speak and honor McCullough, whom she called “a visionary, steadfast and deeply respected leader,” the Democratic side of the aisle erupted in a standing ovation.

“She epitomizes, as much as any member of the House, someone who always understood how extraordinary this institution is and how it can transform people's lives,” DeLauro told The 19th. “I worked with her in the last days when the Affordable Care Act was under fire, and it was touch-and-go. And sitting with her, working up our strategy, and working with the speaker — she is equally responsible for helping to get that bill passed.”

Chiefs of staff manage both a lawmaker’s office and their relationships with other members, staff and outside groups. McCullough said the job looks different every day — both “keeping the trains running” and setting an agenda.  

“It's really being a translator, being a motivator, being a leader, but to me, the most gratifying thing is being the support that people need to do their job excellently,” McCullough said.

McCullough “had advancement of women prioritized,” in every policy she touched, Pelosi said.

“When you do a job like this, your priorities move the day,” Pelosi said. “And her priorities were: ‘How do we do this bill or this commission or this committee that we're forming … thinking about the women? It's not always the case around here.”

McCullough’s instincts and relationships were critical to the passage of many of the big bills passed when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress in the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

“People told her things because they knew she wouldn't betray a confidence, and they also knew she would make good use of what it was,” Pelosi said. “‘What does Terri think?’ was a very important not only question, but a challenge.”

As lawmakers put together the American Rescue Plan in early 2021 to provide relief to Americans during the pandemic, McCullough worked to direct funds to the state and local level, where many community leaders on the front lines of the crisis were women. In legislation boosting infrastructure and domestic manufacturing, she worked to ensure women would be represented in the jobs created in trades and technical industries where they’ve historically been underrepresented.

“I am still, frankly, in awe every day that I have had the opportunity to see and be part of things I could never even have dreamed of, both the glorious and the horrific,” McCullough said. “It’s hard to explain how meaningful it can be to do this work, especially in the dark times.”

One such dark time was when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters ransacked the Capitol on January 6 to thwart Congress’ counting of the electoral votes for Biden’s election victory.  

“One of the proudest moments of my life,” McCullough recalled, was when the National Guard secured the Capitol and lawmakers returned to the Capitol to finish the job of affirming the election results. After Congress completed the count around 4 a.m., she walked back to her apartment to get a couple of hours of sleep before returning to work the next day.

“All of my colleagues and peers came back the next day and kept coming back, because this place mattered so much to them,” she said.

In the aftermath, Pelosi said, she didn’t want to direct the House’s response from the top down. McCullough worked with Jamie Fleet, staff director for the Democrats on the House Administration Committee, on forming the Select Committee on January 6. McCullough reached across the aisle to then-Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who were among the few Republicans to speak out against Trump’s attempt to subvert the election.

Cheney, in her 2023 book “Oath and Honor,” credited McCullough and Fleet as “indispensable” to the committee coming together and carrying out its work. Cheney recalled how, on a night when she and a few staffers were working late to finalize the committee’s public report, McCullough came into her Capitol basement hideaway office with midnight snacks.

“She knew we’d be there down around the clock, working to meet our deadline,” Cheney wrote. “I looked up from the pages of the report to see that Terri was sporting a ‘Team Cheney’ hoodie. It made me smile. It was a touching symbol of the unprecedented alliance we had formed, beyond partisan politics, to do what had to be done for our country.”

Despite the partisan divisions in Congress and ongoing political violence, the efforts of the January 6 committee were “deeply meaningful,” McCullough said. “I hope history will show how critical that effort was.”

Pelosi spent her career recruiting more women to run for Congress and elevating women to leadership roles on committees. McCullough, too, was a mentor on the staff side.

“She not only is responsible in her job, but she takes responsibility for the opportunity here to make sure that she's not just the first woman … that there will be many others,” Pelosi said.

McCullough said she did feel the pressure and weight of being a first. “But it was a good pressure, and I hope that allows other women to take roles like this and not feel the pressure,” she said.

And women continue to achieve “firsts”: Tasia Jackson, chief of staff to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, became the first Black woman to serve in that role to a member of House leadership in 2023.

“I have been so proud to have been able to contribute in Speaker Pelosi’s office for the years that I have, and it is my greatest hope that other women feel as passionately as I do about this work, work as hard as I hope that I did and are able to achieve great heights in the House as a result,” McCullough said. “And I hope that they feel that they will love it as much as I have loved my experience here.”