Melissa Cunningham, PhD

At ACS since 2026

Melissa Cunningham, PhD, is senior scientific director for the Career Growth & Research Excellence program within the Extramural Discovery Science (EDS) of the American Cancer Society (ACS). She oversees the program's development, peer review process, and grant management. She also provides support to grantees and applicants for all of the program's grant mechanisms. Cunningham plays a lead role in coordinating special funding initiatives aimed at increasing the impact of EDS in ACS priority areas.

Research focus and accomplishments

Prior to joining the ACS, Cunningham spent over 15 years with the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, where she led and managed cancer research funding that spanned the full research and career development pipeline. Most recently, she served as Chief of Program Evaluation, where she established a centralized evaluation division to assess research outcomes and inform funding strategies across more than 30 distinct biomedical research programs.

Cunningham also served as program manager for the Prostate Cancer Research Program where she was responsible for the full research funding lifecycle, including strategic planning, development of funding opportunities, peer and programmatic review, portfolio analysis, and stakeholder communications. Her program placed a strong emphasis on supporting early career investigators and physician scientists, helping to build and sustain the next generation of leaders in prostate cancer research.

Her research interests include systems biology and bioinformatic approaches to understanding epigenetics in gene regulation, stem cell biology, and developmental science.

Contact

• melissa.cunningham@cancer.org

Work Before ACS

• US Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
  • Chief of Program Evaluation
    
  • Program Manager
  • Science Officer
• US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

• PhD: Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, 2006
• BS: Biology, Towson University, 2001

Personal Life

I live in the rural suburbs of Central Maryland with my husband and two children.  When I’m not busy with family activities, I enjoy photography, baking, reading, and traveling.