Dr. Cunningham holds J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from universities in Brazil, and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Marketing from Michigan State University. She joined the Department of Advertising in 1974, after serving one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and two years at St. Edward's University as an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Acting Dean. Her publications include eight books, along with articles that have appeared in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journalism Quarterly, and Journal of Consumer Research, among others. Dr. Cunningham was Chair of the Department of Advertising from 1978 to 1985. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees or Board of Directors for numerous organizations, and was recently appointed to the Sunset Commission for the State of Texas.

During the early years of her career, Cunningham has consulted for several small and medium-sized businesses, she now spends most of her consulting time working as an expert witness in regional and federal cases involving advertising. She has worked with several major firms and will continue to do so in the near future.

In addition, some of Cunningham's consulting activities will focus on new business ventures and the use of new media for businesses. This allows me to introduce students to several project which may give them future job opportunities. She will focus on business startups, and international businesses, as she has expertise on these two areas.

Cunningham's major expertise is in the area of legal and ethical aspects of advertising and promotional communications. In addition, she is particularly interested in the management of the communications effort, which includes media effectiveness and message appeals. She expects to continue to follow and research the aspects of international communications, dealing particularly with standardized versus non-standardized messages. Cunningham is a qualified source in the study of the effects of integrated communications on audiences in less developed countries, especially the Latin American countries. Political advertising is another area in which she has conducted research. She is particularly interested in the effect of political advertising on youths and minorities

Past research has focused on multicultural aspects of advertising, the legal problems of advertising and political advertising. Future and ongoing reserach is concerned with the aspects of advertising effectiveness, the importance of integrated communications versus advertising through traditional media, and the effectiveness of warnings in advertising.

While research is still an important activity, its contents are related to the ongoing writing of textbooks and to her consulting activities. It is important to explore the future world of advertising, even though the environment for data collection is still imperfect and sketchly defined. Cunningham's future efforts will concentrate on that task.

The importance of activities outside one's professional expertise is that they open new horizons for study and research. Cunningham is presently a member of several national and regional non-profit boards. This allows her to explore ways in which her professional expertise can aid in the decision-making process of management for such organizations.

Cunningham has also been fortunate in having been appointed to commissions and committees related to state and regional activities of government and non-profits. This has enlarged her research horizons and educated her to the importance of media regulation to its effectiveness.

In addition, she is interested in continuing to serve her college and university in its attempts to become a global force in communications. The "convenios' in process and those already established between our college and other major universities, will be the vehicle to open our students and faculty horizons for future research and teaching. New technology in distance learning will allow us to exchange knowledge and resources around the world in this ever more complex communications environment. Cunningham feels privileged to have an opportunity to contribute to this process.