Professor McCulloch is currently the Head of the Clinical Unit of Paediatric Nephrology and Solid Organ Transplantation (including kidney, liver and heart) at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital (RCWMCH) and Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Her background is that of both paediatric nephrology and paediatric intensive care.

Her research interests with the team of paediatric nephrologists at RCWMCH include Acute Kidney Injury, not only for children in high income regions but also in less well-resourced settings, as well as access for dialysis and kidney transplantation in infants and children as well as adolescents. Specifically, her passion includes training of children’s kidney specialists including to date 44 paediatric nephrologists, many the
first in their country in Africa as well as teams of doctors and nurses in Africa and beyond. She really enjoys doing outreach work in Africa developing paediatric kidney and transplant programmes.

As the Chair of the Saving Young Lives Committee, she has been part of a life-saving training programme using basics of dialysis training in >700 professionals and saving >1000 lives.

Professor McCulloch has held many positions of leadership not only in Africa but also internationally including President of the South African Paediatric Association (SAPA) dealing specifically with COVID issues during the pandemic as an important advocacy voice for children, President of the South African Transplantation Society and President of the International Paediatric Transplantation Society (IPTA) promoting paediatric transplantation worldwide.

One of her proudest achievements, is hosting the International Paediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA) 2025 as Congress President from 19 – 23 February 2025 at the CTICC with 1000 international delegates from far and wide but the first time hosting the IPNA Congress ever on the African Continent, including 100 sponsored Fellows and first ever Nurses and Adolescent symposiums.

Professor McCulloch has just completed her PHD titles Paediatric Acute Kidney Injury Management in an African Setting.She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers (with a research h-index of 32 and a i10-index of 94) and was promoted to full professor in 2018.

She is also an amateur surfer but lives in hope of turning professional.