50 Most Influential Clinical Executives - 2022

Cunningham has led the hospital—the flagship of six-hospital Penn Medicine—since 2017. She is also assistant dean for clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. As an oncology nurse executive, scientist and educator, she has made significant gains in advancing nursing practice and clinical care, including through research on the effects of nursing on outcomes, clinical trials and innovative models of care delivery. Before being named CEO at the hospital, she was chief nursing executive at the health system, where she developed practice standards, oversaw quality and more strongly tied scholarship into the practice of nursing.