Since 1998, Chinazo Cunningham, MD, MS has been providing care, developing programs, and conducting research focused on marginalized populations including people who use drugs with or at-risk for HIV infection. She has collaborated with community-based organizations to develop unique and innovative programs to deliver health care to these marginalized populations. Parallel with program development, her research has focused on improving access to care, utilization of health care services, and health outcomes. Dr. Cunningham has been the principal investigator on numerous grants funded by the NIH, CDC, HRSA, local and state Departments of Health, and foundations. In addition to her own research, she has mentored scores of trainees to conduct clinical research, resulting in several NIH-funded grants led by her trainees. Dr. Cunningham has served on numerous national advisory committees, including serving as the Chair of NY State Department of Health AIDS Institute’s Substance Abuse Committee; a member of the Opioid Guideline Workgroup of the CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, 2016; a member of the NIH Office of AIDS Research’s Racial and Ethnic Populations Committee; and a member and Chair of the NIH’s Behavioral and Social Consequences of HIV/AIDS Study Section.
Prior to becoming faculty at Einstein, Dr. Cunningham received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and completed her residency in primary care internal medicine at UCSF and New York University (NYU), followed by a year of chief residency at NYU. While at Einstein, she received her master’s degree in clinical research methods.