Jill Cottingham remembers struggling with math for years when she was in school.

“I felt like everybody else around me was moving ahead,” she said.

Her struggles continued through college, but she eventually found a teacher who could work with her.

Today, as a behavior intervention coach for Poudre School District, Cottingham strives to bridge the gaps between struggling students and their education, just as that teacher had done for her.

Cottingham’s job involves evaluating and assessing individual students who are struggling academically and behaviorally, and then using that information to create intervention plans for staff.

“I go into whatever school asks for our assistance, and that could be anywhere from preschool all the way through highschool,” Cottingham said. “That typically involves working with students individually, or working with teachers, or working with whole schools around how to support behavior.”

But Cottingham was not always a behavior intervention coach. Her career in education began at Bacon Elementary School as an integrated services teacher, where she worked for 15 years in the autism program.

“I really always liked behavior,” she said. “[I] was always interested in behavior, like, why does that [behavior] happen? And how can we help students who are experiencing that?”

Cottingham’s work has helped many students over her seven years as a behavior intervention coach. She describes her work with a sixth grader named Finn Maycumber with severe needs whom she has known for several years.

“Finn was a kiddo who did not have an IEP,” Cottingham said, “he did not have a 504, he pretty much had nothing. He was [a] golden child at school until fourth grade, and the wheels just came off.”

Maycumber is diagnosed with anxiety, depression and ADHD. Cottingham works with Maycumber on an as-needed basis. She works indirectly with staff as a consultant, as well as directly with Maycumber to help him work through regulating his emotions when he is struggling with schoolwork.

“One of his big things is he likes routine and structure. He either likes teachers and has a good relationship with them, or he will make your life a living hell.”

One subject in particular Maycumber doesn’t like is math.

“If I get mad at my work, it’s kinda hard for me to calm down,” Maycumber said. “[Cottingham] explains it better, and says that it’s okay and I can get through it, and calms me down.”

Brad Reimers, school psychologist at Fossil Ridge High School and a long-time coworker of Cottingham, commends the work that she does as a behavior intervention coach.

“The role somebody like Ms. Cottingham [fills], it’s invaluable,” Reimers said. “She is building capacity for people to work with challenging behaviors.”

Cottingham hopes that what she does for students across the district provides them the support she struggled to find when she was younger.

“I would like to be that person,” she said about her old teacher. “To be able to have that impact on somebody.”