Prior to his appointment as regional executive, he was associate director of research. He has served as a vice president in the research department, where he has been responsible for the regional and Latin American research teams. He has served on the Bank's Personnel, Information Technology, and Risk Management Committees and as a member of the Federal Reserve System's Information Security Group and Technology Services Council. He also was the acting director of the Bank's Center for Real Estate Analytics and the interim head of the finance group.
Dr. Cunningham joined the Bank as an economist with the macropolicy group in 1985, specializing in macroeconomics and monetary theory. He previously worked as an economics instructor at Barnard College at Columbia University.
He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Western Economic Association, and the Southern Economic Association. Dr. Cunningham has published numerous professional articles.
A native of Reedley, California, he received a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in economics from California State University, Fresno. He earned a master's degree, a master of philosophy, and a PhD in economics from Columbia University. He has attended the executive development program at the Wharton School.