Cecilia L. Cunningham
Director, "The Middle College National Consortium and Former Principal"
Director, "The Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College"

Dr. Cecilia Cunningham has spent her entire career educating children and firmly believes all children should be given the opportunity to succeed. This belief is what brought her more than twenty years ago to Middle College High School, an innovative approach to educating at-risk students, where Dr. Cunningham served as principal.

Middle College High School is the first high school-college collaboration model to help students who are most likely to drop out of school stay the course. Created by Dr. Janet Lieberman in 1974, Middle College High School is based on the idea that smaller classes, committed teachers, attentive counseling and high expectations would help keep students in school. Middle College High School now serves more than 500 students a year and demonstrates that students who are placed into a college environment sooner can act responsibly and achieve academically.

In 1993, Dr. Cunningham founded the Middle College National Consortium to provide professional development for secondary and postsecondary educators who work with underserved students. The Consortium consists of more than 25 Middle College High Schools located on college campuses across the country.

With funding from the Ford Foundation, Dr. Cunningham collaborated with Eric Nadelstern, principal of the International High School, and Dr. Janet Lieberman to create the Early College High School. The Middle College Early College High School enrolls students who have been underserved into a ninth through twelfth grade high school that combines high school and college classes and culminates in a high school diploma and an associates degree by the thirteenth grade. Dr. Cunningham is concentrating on starting eight new Early College High Schools and redesigning twelve existing Middle College High Schools to Early College High Schools. With assistance from organizations such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The, Early College Initiative will open more than 130 Early College High Schools by 2010.

For the past thirteen years, Dr. Cunningham has provided professional development to new principals in New York City. She is also the founder of Bank Street Principal's Institution. Dr. Cunningham holds a doctorate in education from Teachers' College at Columbia University and received her B.S. in Mathematics from St. Peter's College. She is the recipient of The Reliance Award for Excellence in Education, The International High School Award and the New York Council of Administrative Women in Education Outstanding Leadership Award.