ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 25, 2022 — Eversight board member Carol Cunningham, MD, has been named the 2022 Meta-Leader of the Year by Harvard's National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) for her service, dedication, innovation and achievement during the COVID-19 response.
Founded in 2003, NPLI is a joint venture of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. NPLI serves as a crisis leadership training program and research center dedicated to preparing those who lead in safety and security, preparedness, response and recovery.
Each year, an NPLI Executive Education Program alumni is chosen as the Meta-Leader of the Year for demonstrating extraordinary meta-leadership in the midst of a nationally or internationally significant situation in the previous year.
"Dr. Cunningham is a true role model of wisdom, compassion and innovation," said Diane Hollingsworth, President/CEO, Eversight. "We are fortunate to have such a visionary leader on our Board of Directors and congratulate her on this outstanding recognition."
Cunningham is the State Medical Director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of EMS, 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 first emergency physician and EMS medical director to receive the Meta-Leader of the Year award according to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services.
“Crisis response missions of this magnitude cannot be accomplished alone,” Cunningham wrote to friends and colleagues in an email. “It truly takes a village of unselfish hard-working souls to be successful. While I may be the recipient of this award, I share it equally with every person and organization that collaboratively participated or supported my assigned or assumed tasks at the local, state, national and international levels."
NPLI has trained more than 10,000 leaders and aspiring leaders throughout federal, state and local government agencies as well as in the private and nonprofit sectors, helping ensure that today’s unprecedented challenges are met with uncommon leadership from top officials and encourages connectivity.
About Eversight
Eversight is a nonprofit organization with a mission to restore sight and prevent blindness through the healing power of donation, transplantation and research. The Eversight network is responsible for recovering, evaluating and providing human eye tissue for transplantation; supporting research into the causes and cures of blinding eye conditions; promoting donation awareness through public and professional education; and providing humanitarian aid to people around the world in need of corneal transplantation. Operating in Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and South Korea, Eversight works in collaboration with surgeons, researchers, academic medical centers and eye banks across the United States and abroad. For more information, visit eversightvision.org.
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