Dr. Patricia Cunningham was once told by Dr. Amy Shuman, one of her mentors, that “you can have it all, just not at the same time.” Dr. Patty, as her students call her is the Director of Social Change at The Ohio State University in the Office of Student Life. She oversees Buckeye Civic Engagement Connection which works to connect The Ohio State University with its surrounding communities, focusing specifically on programming for individuals, families, and entire communities facing poverty and its consequences. BCEC’s members, which are comprised of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, are trained to collaborate in developing innovative poverty solutions that address key areas of focus including health, education, economics, and design in urban and rural communities.
Outside of working for Ohio State, Dr. Cunningham works with ROX (rulingourexperiences.com), runs a girls group at Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls, and sits on the board of the non-profit called 1 Girl. She also oversees BuckeyeREACH, which is a multi-faceted education-based intervention program where 100 OSU students and other members go into multiple high-security facilities to build relationships with local youth. Dr. Cunningham says “this work has been the most challenging and yet the most rewarding to champion education for incarcerated youth and adults. I am a scholar-activist that gets in the weeds. I do not just write a script, I also play a part. I should be the one spending more time in the prisons we visit than any other person who serves with me. We all should lead and serve by example.”
Growing up, Dr. Cunningham lived in Section 8 housing and did not have health insurance. She feels that she “beat the odds” as she is a first generation college student and made it all the way through multiple graduate degrees. “I am most proud to be the only Doctor in my family. In this capacity I bring honor to the legacy of my extended family and at the same time I bring hope to young girls of color that it is possible for them. The PhD is the license to create knowledge, and knowledge is power.”
One of Dr. Cunningham’s goals is to move the needle on poverty. “I hope that in my work I can help find partial solutions to the critical points in high-need neighborhoods in rural and urban places. I pray I lead a life where I exhaust all the talents I have been blessed with and uncover a few more along the way.”
Dr. Cunningham’s bucket list for 2014 is to be on Sesame Street as a puppet, produce a Moms Mabley tribute DVD, and master at some level the ukulele. “The work that I do is hard work but it is the heart work. Knowing how to have fun and laugh at oneself is vastly important to me.” For more information visit, www.bcec.osu.edu.