Dr. Carol Cunningham was appointed State Medical Director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of EMS in July 2004 and is a board certified emergency physician at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Medical Center and an associate professor of emergency medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She is the co-principal investigator for the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) National Model EMS Clinical Guidelines project and serves on the Ohio Medical Coordination Plan Committee and Pediatric Disaster Coalition. She served as the EMS Medical Director representative on the National EMS Advisory Council (NEMSAC) for 5 years following her membership on the NEMSAC's Education and Workforce Committee.
Dr. Cunningham received her medical degree and completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati. She has seven years of experience as a flight physician, eleven years of experience as a tactical EMS medical director, and is a fellow in the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the Academy of Emergency Medical Services.
Dr. Cunningham completed the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative and the Women and Power program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education and the Homeland Security Executive Leadership Program at the Naval Postgraduate School & the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center for Homeland Defense and Security. She is the 2012 recipient of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine's James Keaney Leadership Award.
In addition to her continued duties as a senior oral board examiner, Dr. Cunningham completed a 3-year term on the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) EMS Examination Committee in 2014 after 4 years of service as an item writer on the historic ABEM EMS Examination Task Force. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of EMS (JEMS), a contributing editor for the EMS Insider, and has served on several committees and panels at the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies), the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the EMS Program Steering Committee of the National Fire Academy Board of Visitors.
Dr. Cunningham was appointed to the Executive Steering Committee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate's First Responder Resource Group and the OnStar® Public Safety Advisory Council and serves on the EMS Support Team of the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (DHS/FEMA) National Integration Center Strategic Resource Group, the Board of Directors of the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, and the Board of Trustees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.