Assistant Professor, Center for Applied Conflict Management

Fields: conflict management, negotiation, employee/labor relations, social psychology and conflict, social change

After receiving her Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Kent State University in 1982, and her law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1986, Karen Cunningham began her post-graduate career as an attorney in general practice in Virginia. Deeply concerned about the adversarial nature of legal conflict resolution and its effects on the parties involved, she left the practice of law to focus on alternative methods of dispute resolution.

She served as the first local long-term care ombudsman in Roanoke, Virginia, investigating and resolving complaints about the quality of care for nursing home residents. She returned to Ohio in late 1989, and in 1990 joined the Center for Applied Conflict Management (then the Center for Peaceful Change) as an Assistant Professor. There she taught a wide variety of courses on conflict management and nonviolent social change (and introduced Negotiation as a special topics course) while taking masters level courses in Sociology. Ms. Cunningham has also conducted seminars and workshops in negotiation, team-building, mediation and strategic planning, and worked as a consultant.

In 1994, Ms. Cunningham went to work for the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, serving first as Personnel Manager, then as Employee Relations Director, handling all hiring, training, grievances, discipline, labor negotiations and personnel policy-making. She then assumed the position of Staff Development and Training Director with the agency. During this time, she continued to periodically teach courses with CACM.

Ms. Cunningham returned to Kent State on a full time basis as Assistant Professor of Applied Conflict Management in Fall 2001. She also continued to work part time with the housing authority as an Organizational Performance Consultant until February 2007, and is working on a Master of Arts in Sociology.

Her current interests are in the area of social psychology and conflict, with a special focus on such issues as conflict in the workplace and organizational culture; incivility; effective negotiation techniques; and the role of the individual in creating change in society.

Ms. Cunningham received nominations for KSU's Outstanding Teaching Award in 2006 and 2007, was nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008, and was nominated for Ability Unlimited's Outstanding Faculty Award in 2004. In 2005 she was inducted into the Pi Gamma Nu (Social Sciences) and Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology) Honor Societies.

Ms. Cunningham is a certified Professional in Human Resources. She is a member of the Pi Gamma Nu International Honor Society in Social Sciences, the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society, the American Association of University Professors, and the Virginia State Bar. She also authored an article entitled "Kent State and May 4: Lessons Learned, Lesson Forgotten?" which was published in the September/October 2003 edition of Fellowship. Ms. Cunningham has served as the advisor for the May 4th Task Force since 2005, and was faculty advisor for ADAPT (Association for Disability Awareness for Professors and Teachers) during the 2004-2005 school year.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Office:   321 Bowman Hall, office C
Phone:  330-672-8943
E-mail:  kcunning@kent.edu, a2dox@usa.net

EDUCATION

M.A., Sociology, Kent State University, in progress
J.D., Washington & Lee University School of Law, 1986
B.S., Criminal Justice Studies, Kent State University, 1982

Curriculum Vitae (.pdf)