Joel Cunningham Biography

Joel Cunningham was the fifteenth vice chancellor of the University of the South and the former president of Susquehanna University. He grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chattanooga in 1965 with majors in mathematics and psychology and completed his master's and doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Oregon. Cunningham is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He began his career in academe as a member of the faculty at the University of Kentucky, where he taught mathematics for five years. He made his first return to Tennessee, to his alma mater, in fact, when he was appointed dean of continuing education and mathematics faculty member at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, in 1974. He served a year as an American Council on Education Fellow with the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the President of the University of Tennessee. He left Chattanooga in 1979 to become vice president for academic affairs, dean of the faculty, and professor of mathematics at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. In 1984 he was named president there where he remained until 2000, when he was elected vice chancellor by Sewanee's board of trustees and made his second Tennessee homecoming. He served in this position until 2010.