Paul R. Cunningham

Paul Raymond Goldwyn Cunningham (born 1949) is a Jamaican American surgeon and medical educator known for pioneering as one of the few African American medical Deans existing in the United States. Their number becomes even smaller when only considering non-minority Med schools. Cunningham was appointed Dean of The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in 2008. (Greenville, North Carolina), where he became a tenured Professor of Surgery in 1989. He graduated as an MD from the University of the West Indies in 1972, and further specialized in surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center (Manhattan). He practiced and taught surgery for several years at the Bertie-County and Pitt-County Memorial Hospitals (Windsor, and Greenville, NC) before joining academia. Cunningham has published numerous research articles in areas such as trauma, bariatric surgery, allograft and organ transplantation.

Dean Paul Cunningham was born on Jul 28th, 1949, in Mandeville, Jamaica, the son of Winston P Cunningham and Sylvia F Marsh. He grew up in Jamaica, where his grandfather was a veterinarian. He graduated from DeCarteret College High School in 1966. He is married to Sydney Keniston, and has four children: Shawn, Rachel, Lucinda, and Tifanie.

After medical graduation in Jamaica in 1972, Cunningham completed his residency in Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1979, and also worked as a surgeon at Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and City Hospital at Elmhurst, all in New York City. Moving his practice to NC in 1981, he became vice-chief of medical staff at Bertie Memorial Hospital, where he began teaching ECU medical students. Cunningham joined the ECU faculty full time in 1984, became medical director of trauma the following year, and chief medical staff at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in 1991. For six years (2002-2008) Cunningham became Professor & Chair at the Department of Surgery of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York. He returned to Greenville NC in 2008 to become Dean of The Brody School of Medicine and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs of East Carolina University, positions he presently holds.

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