The University of Minnesota Board of Regents announced three finalists for the University of Minnesota President position, and they have been visiting the five campuses across the state, including Crookston.
Dr. Rebecca Cunningham is the third and final candidate to visit the Crookston campus on Monday afternoon with an open house at Kiehle Auditorium with a question and answer session with Crookston Chancellor Mary Holz-Clause.
Cunningham said she was attracted to the Minnesota President job because being a public land-grant institution speaks to her. “It speaks to her mission of the value of higher education and supporting a public mission, which is what I care about in terms of serving the citizens and educating the citizens of the state by providing healthcare, providing service, and all the things a University can do with that mission is so exciting,” said Dr. Cunningham. “The University of Minnesota has the five system campuses that are each a treasure and a gem, and the other reason why I am interested in the position is that I have long cared about Minnesota as a state. I have family here and family connections to the University of Minnesota.”
Cunningham currently serves as the vice president for research and innovation at the University of Michigan. During her leadership tenure, Michigan expanded its research volume to a record $1.86 billion annually as Cunningham designed and implemented the first comprehensive review of the Michigan research, scholarship, and creative practice enterprise. A faculty member in the Michigan Schools of Public Health and Medicine since 1999, Cunningham previously served as the associate vice president for research health sciences. “I am trained as an emergency physician, I am also faculty in the school of public health. I worked clinically as an emergency physician for about 20 years across three different sites,” said Dr. Cunningham. “I have experience at the individual department level in serving on the executive finance committee. I understand working across health systems, practice care plans, as well as the clinical operations and how everything fits into an academic mission of the medical school.”
Cunningham holds a bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University and a medical doctorate from Jefferson Medical College. She completed her residency in emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor and a postdoctoral research fellowship with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Dr. Cunningham said the University of Minnesota has many challenges and positives. “Universities across the country are facing enrollment challenges with the demographic shift,” said Cunningham. “There is a great opportunity here in the Midwest as the climate changes. We have to address it with good sustainability plans, climate plans, and the economics of the climate migration to the Midwest. The upper Midwest also provides opportunities both for partnering with businesses and local industry.”
