State medical director, Ohio Dept. of Public Safety’s Emergency Medical Services Division
Ohio’s top doc has many ‘firsts’
You might see Dr. Carol Cunningham first on the scene of an emergency, making sure that Ohio and the nation are prepared. But then again, she has had many firsts in her career. In 2004, she was appointed state medical director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), making her the nation’s first black state EMS director. She also was the first emergency medicine physician to complete the Homeland Security Executive Leaders Program, and the first woman to receive the American Academy of Emergency Medicine’s James Keaney Leadership Award.
Cunningham is a practicing physician at Akron General Medical Center and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She also serves in a multitude of roles with national agencies.
Cunningham, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University and a medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, says her love of learning began in Maple Heights City Schools.
“When I was 10 or 11 years old, I decided that I wanted to compete in a regional Math Olympiad competition using Boolean algebra as my selected topic. No one batted an eye or tried to convince me to select a less abstract topic. My teachers encouraged my research by showering me with additional resources. I won a medal in the Olympiad and was allowed to repeat my presentation to my fellow classmates the following week. The sky was the limit. I was also blessed with parents who deeply valued education and taught me infinite life lessons except how to say or think, ‘I can’t.’”
Armed with that can-do attitude, Cunningham graduated from Maple Heights High School in 1978 and went on to take her career to perhaps greater heights than she ever imagined.
Educational Inspiration
“When I was in first grade, Mr. Elmer Bieler, our band director, had a bust of a man on his desk. He told us that he would give $1 to the first student who figured out the identity of this man and what had made him famous. I, along with my fellow band members, spent hours studying every classical composer on the planet trying to identify this man. After six years … the man in the bust remained unidentified.
“On the last day of band practice before we were to become junior high students … we asked Mr. Bieler, (who) responded, “He’s Old Grand-Dad.” When I went home and asked my father who Old Grand-Dad was, he opened up a magazine and showed me the image of the identical bust on Mr. Bieler’s desk … in an ad for bourbon!
“Nevertheless, this was a brilliant ploy by Mr. Bieler. For the price of a dollar and his bust of Old Grand-Dad, we gained more knowledge about classical composers and music than most adults. More importantly, we learned the value of reading and researching topics that may lie outside one’s professional realm and becoming a well-rounded individual.”
Giving Back
“For my high school alma mater, I wanted to offer my thanks to the three teachers I feel have made a significant impact that has facilitated success in my career … Vincent Tate, my physics teacher … Sigmund Peck, an English teacher … (and) Al Melfi, my marching and jazz band director. … I created the first endowed Maple Education Foundation scholarship of perpetuity, the Melfi-Peck-Tate scholarship, to express my gratitude to these wonderfully talented and sincerely dedicated teachers.
Current as of 4/24/2024 6:13 pm