About the Author - Tim McCall, PhD

Timothy McCall hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. He received his master's degree and his doctoral degree in Social Psychology from Purdue University and his BA (Honors) in Psychology from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, Indiana in the year 2004.

Tim's work on the Edmund Fitzgerald project began in the year 2000 when he was in the eighth grade. Tim was named one of "Indiana's Own" by an Indianapolis television station for his work on this website, and has been interviewed dozens of times by television, newspapers, and radio. He also appeared in the book "Mighty Fitz" by Michael Schumacher and has been interviewed by CNN for his research and expertise on the disaster.

Now, Tim McCall is a researcher and educator in the Washington, DC area who holds dual appointments in research and higher education: he is the director of research at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and also director of health sciences undergraduate courses in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University (GW).

While completing his graduate studies in social psychology, Tim developed a passion for data analysis and research methodology. Tim is experienced in conducting primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research studies. He also has led and analyzed educational program evaluation for a professional healthcare workforce. He has demonstrated experience in disseminating research findings to a variety of audiences, both technical and nontechnical, in a variety of media, including data visualizations and infographics, research conferences and peer-reviewed publications, social media engagement, and podcasts and news media.

His research interests include the public health and healthcare workforces, including diversity, equity and well-being; he has presented and published extensively in these areas. In addition to leading the research team at NACCHO, he is a faculty member and program director in the Department of Clinical Research & Leadership at The George Washington University, where he teaches research methods, advanced statistical analysis, introductory statistics, and biostatistics to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students whose studies span clinical research, public health, and translational health sciences. Prior to joining NACCHO's R&E team, he was a researcher at American Academy of Physician Associates where his work also focused on the healthcare workforce, diversity and equity, educational program evaluation and needs assessments, and provider well-being.

About S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online

Many visitors ask how this website originated and why it was originally created by a fourteen year-old in the year 2000. After all, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank 10 years before the author's birth, and he was not related to any of those on board. The answer to this question: school.

When Tim McCall was in the eighth grade, students were assigned a project, called "What a Disaster", to cover different disasters in history. When originally introduced to the Edmund Fitzgerald, young McCall thought that it was a person. It was not until he researched it further that he discovered it was in fact a freighter that sank on Lake Superior with no survivors. He was intrigued by the mystery and the uncertainty surrounding the sinking, and also the rarity of having no survivors, so he began researching the tragedy for his project. It was not until about three weeks into his project that he got the idea for a website. Though he had never considered creating a website before, the thought of having a place to compile his information and share it with anyone desiring to know more interested him. He felt that not enough people knew about the crew and the ship. The website originally consisted of barely 10 web pages, and has grown to the site it is known as today. SSEFO (formerly at a different URL than today’s ssedmundfitzgerald.org) has become a leading source of information about the Fitz on the internet today.

Along with the website Tim also gave an oral presentation and presented a booklet of research. Some selected components of the original research are still available on the site, interspersed throughout new content. After originally creating the site and presenting his project, many family members contacted Tim and they have since become friends.