Tim Cunningham never thought he would become a nurse. His first passion was in the performing arts—theatre, clown, dance and acrobatics. He worked as an actor for nearly a decade in various regional theatres in the U.S. and internationally. It was through those experiences that he began work with Clowns Without Borders in 2003. A small non-profit, Clowns Without Borders sends professional artists into war zones, refugee camps and other zones of crisis with the simple mission of catalyzing laughter and playfulness. Tim has performed in more than 20 countries with the clowns, he served for five years as the Executive Director of CWB, and now he sits on their Board of Directors. It was working in a pediatric ward in pre-earthquake Haiti that inspired Tim to study nursing. 

He graduated from the Clinical Nurse Leader program at the University of Virginia in 2009 and then worked an emergency/trauma nurse at the UVA Health, Children’s National Medical Center and New York Presbyterian, Cornell. He has worked internationally as a clinician in post-earthquake Haiti; Sierra Leone, during the Ebola outbreak with the organization, Partners in Health; and also with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. His work as a clown and nurse keeps bringing him back to the central question: What keeps people resilient? 

He completed his Doctorate of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. His dissertation focused on psychosocial support of expatriate Ebola aid workers in West Africa, with an emphasis on Narrative Medicine. In 2016, he joined the faculty at UVA with a joint appointment in the School of Nursing and Department of Drama. 

Currently, Tim is the Vice President of Practice and Innovation at Emory Healthcare where he also holds an appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Nell Hodgson School of Nursing at Emory University. Tim is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. His publications focus on compassion and wellness. Tim’s co-authored textbook, Self-Care for New and Student Nurses challenges the way we as learners and leaders approach the critical practices of caring for ourselves that we may care for others.