JEMS Editorial Board member Carol Cunningham, MD, has been named Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) 2022 Meta-Leader of the Year.
The award is given to a person who has demonstrated extraordinary meta-leadership in the midst of a nationally or internationally significant situation.
Cunningham, State Medical Director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of EMS, was chosen for her outstanding leadership during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
She is the first emergency physician and EMS medical director to receive the award.
Her leadership was “infused with wisdom, insight, compassion, kindness, and innovation. She has been a mentor for many, and is a role model for meta-leaders everywhere,” according to the announcement.
“Crisis response missions of this magnitude cannot be accomplished alone,” Cunningham told 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.
“I also share this award with my treasured friends and colleagues who tragically succumbed, through infection or crushing mental stress, due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” she continued. “I remain committed to ensure that they, along with their bravery and innumerable positive and impactful contributions to humanity, are never forgotten. Despite their physical absence, the brilliance of their spiritual presence shall never be extinguished.”
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