Dr. Cunningham's broad research interests include the intersection of state and federal policy with school leadership, leadership preparation, leadership for science, and improvement science.
She is an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. Her current research projects are centered on improvement science, leadership preparation, and content-specific leadership.
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During her 2-year postdoctoral position at UCEA (www.UCEA.org) she had/has involvement in several projects in the area of principal preparation programming including UCEA's Program Design Network (PDN) initiative, the INSPIRE Leadership Survey Suite, and the Wallace Foundation-supported University Preparation Program Initiative (UPPI).