The Task Force is thrilled to announce Dr. Tim Cunningham, DrPH, MSN, RN, FAAN, as the new Program Director of the Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics (FACE) program. Founded in 2019, FACE emerged from The Task Force’s commitment to embed compassionate and ethical practices in global health efforts.
Dr. Cunningham started his career as an actor after following his father’s advice to avoid working in healthcare – a field that caused his father severe burnout. As he worked in regional theaters across the U.S., Dr. Cunningham was introduced to Clowns Without Borders and studied the art of Clown. Through this organization, Cunningham witnessed profound poverty and healthcare inequity, which made him wonder why children were dying from diseases for which he had been vaccinated as a child, and also why mothers were not able to get appropriate prenatal care.
Those questions inspired him to go back to school and study nursing, specifically in emergency and trauma contexts, through which he has contributed to public health and humanitarian efforts, such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and post Typhoon Yolanda.
Prior to joining The Task Force, Dr. Cunningham served as the Vice President and Co-Chief Well-Being Officer at Emory Healthcare and the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University. He holds an adjunct associate professor appointment at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory. Dr. Cunningham also has a Doctorate of Public Health from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, with a focus on psychosocial support and resilience in humanitarian settings.
We spoke with Dr. Cunningham about his work cultivating compassionate health systems and fostering well-being.
Is there a particular moment or experience that stands out to you—one that sparked your passion for bringing compassion into global health work?
I have had multiple opportunities to witness the most profound and hard-to-describe resilience working in various global health settings. During the West Africa Ebola outbreak, I spent about nine weeks in affected communities working with Partners In Health and I worked as a frontline Ebola nurse. We had an extraordinary team of nurses and physicians from around the world. We worked with physicians who came from Nigeria after they had gotten Ebola under control. We had limited personal protection equipment, we had only nine different medications in our only pharmacy, and the compassion that I witnessed daily was from folks who showed up. Compassion was infused every day. What was most important to fostering a sense of compassion? It was presence.
As afraid as we were, as angry as we were, as moved as we were by what we were experiencing, our teams maintained this ability to be present with our patients, with their families, and with each other. That’s where compassion starts. Really paying attention and being there. I think in the world that we live in, we are so full of technology and all of this stuff. We are all constantly distracted. Compassion begs that we keep coming back to paying attention. I am thrilled to see how we can build our FACE programming in nearly 140 countries with The Task Force, and support and build science around compassion.
Considering your new role as Director of FACE, what specific impact do you hope to achieve?
First, how do we best disseminate the knowledge that we are learning from our partners outside the U.S.? How do we find ways to translate that or implement that within the U.S., and within U.S. healthcare systems? I think there is a paucity of compassion across U.S. healthcare systems. It is not an individual’s fault or even a group’s fault. It is based on the incentives that physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals are forced to work under. I think, arguably, the incentive is more to generate revenue than to actually care for patients. But there are ways to work within that and ways to work around it. I am excited to learn what we have learned overseas to apply in the U.S.
Secondly, how do we better measure compassion globally? How can we find those common characteristics or variables of compassion that we can learn about that might more likely occur in settings around the world? And how do we uplift those variables so other researchers around the world can say, ‘ah, here is a better way to track compassion!’
If we think of compassion like a disease, with diseases we want to reduce those clusterings, but how do we grow that with compassion? It goes to metrics, it goes to measurement, and so I am also curious on how we can better articulate precise ways to measure compassion. They are out there. We just need a group to convene them and spread the word.
How do you envision the role of compassion expanding in global health in the coming years?
What is exciting about FACE is that not only do we focus on compassion, but we also focus on ethics. As I think about engaging in this work, especially in today’s age, where science is not trusted in the way it was, one thing that seems to be holding fast is compassion. No matter what side of the aisle people seem to be on. No matter what belief system people have. Inherently, we are born with compassion. We know through evidence that you can grow that. You can teach it and it can expand. I think now more than ever compassion is critically important. With the global health challenges that our community is facing, there are many people and foundations that I think would be very interested in supporting compassion-centered work. The money is there. What we need now is creativity. When we balance creativity with compassion and ethical approaches, I think we are going to find a lot of opportunities that we may never have imagined in the past.
When addressing global health challenges, how can practitioners integrate principles of compassion and ethical frameworks into their decision-making and actions?
The world in many ways tells us we don’t have enough, when the reality is we do. We are enough, and there is abundance out there. We just have to think about it differently. What can an individual do? Much of this work starts with self-compassion. When I talk about self-compassion, I am not talking about selfishness. I am talking about physical practices individuals can do to help regulate, slow their heart rate, help them focus. Whether it is a human who is suffering, whether it is a community that is suffering. And to have the creative space in the moment to do something to reduce that suffering, and that is compassion. I think the work begins with self-compassion. There are great measures for that. There are ways to teach it. Part of it is helping work with our partners around the world to translate what we know about self-compassion to culturally appropriate practices. It begins with that.
When we are able to practice self-compassion we see the opportunities to practice in what I believe is the most important part of compassion, which is community compassion. From a leadership standpoint, how is the policy I am writing truly going to reduce the suffering of the community that I want to support? How can I think about that and what would those measures be? Do we have the ability as a team and as individuals to pause, to slow down, to have enough self-compassion to truly listen, to try to meet our partners where they are and then collaborate to find solutions to ultimately reduce the suffering of the people we are here to serve?
Who inspires you?
I look up to a lot of people. I think of George Lennox, a mentor and close family friend, who passed away 20 years ago now. He was like a second grandfather. I never knew any of my grandfathers. Both of my grandfathers had died before I was born. What George taught me was that every perspective is important. And he taught me the skills to have conversations with people with different perspectives. I think we need that more than ever. I am trying to channel my inner George as such nowadays, frequently.
Florence, a nurse, who was one of my first nurse mentors, showed me that letters behind your name don’t matter. Life experience and lived experience matter. She passed away a few years ago, but still reminds me daily to look past the credentials and try to see the person in front of me. I think we all need to do that a little bit more.
I think of my father, whom I watched struggle through burnout and life challenges. He is a very persistent and resilient person. I think of my mom who is going through chronic cancer right now and the way she is showing up for her body and for herself and for her community is just inspiring. I could talk for days about these folks.
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” is one of my favorite leadership books. In following the life of Malcom X, a very powerful leader, a very powerful, powerful man who had the ability as a leader when he realized that he needed to change his life, his belief system. He did, and he did with a sense of vulnerability. When I think from a leadership standpoint, I think what I learned from his life and his autobiography is that as powerful as we may become as leaders, our vulnerability has to match that level.
