Expecting Progress, Not Perfection: Dr. Chris Cunnings

“So, I went to McKendree as an Exploratory major and played football under Coach Carl Poelker. There, I declared Chemistry as my major. But then I got to my senior year and said, ‘You know, I don’t like sitting in labs at midnight just writing numbers down. So, what do I want to do?’ And then a professor came up to me after class and said, ‘You have an amazing ability to explain things so your classmates can make sense of it. Have you ever thought about teaching?’

“I hadn’t, but the more I thought about it, I realized that would also allow me to coach. So coaching was the impetus that drove me to get into teaching. But the irony is that, after my second year teaching, I fell in love with it.” 

And Cunnings’ career continued to unfold in unexpected ways. After finishing a second bachelor’s degree, he returned to Wilmington High School to teach math and science. He spent five years there, before leaving to become a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After graduating with his doctorate, he turned his attention to the higher ed job market. And, because of Coach Poelker, Millikin University was top of mind.

“I left my job at Wilmington to go be a doctoral student, then returned, then found my way to Millikin. I don’t know why, but I feel like there’s a through line connecting all these places for me. And I just find that there’s a beauty in that sort of simplicity where all my roots get tangled. And it’s cool that they all tangled and brought me here.”

His time at Millikin as a Director and Associate Professor has been marked by great challenges — chief among them COVID — and great successes, including the School of Education’s Elementary Education program receiving the Illinois State Board of Education’s coveted “Exemplary” rating, the highest they give, five years running.

Cunnings credits this success to one of the greatest strengths of the Millikin community — its people.

“And that’s what’s kept me here 10 years — we have very strong Education programs, and they’re built the right way. We have a very high-energy group, which I love. 

 “The students we get in class, they want to be engaging themselves as teachers. So, they want to see evidence of that from us. Our faculty are energetic, they develop cool curriculum, they’re very hands-on. And that’s why our Education candidates come out well-prepared: Because we show them what the best practice is every day in class.”

Those best practices extend beyond the classroom too. Cunnings is especially proud of the Performance Learning opportunities provided by one of the School of Education’s “crown jewels,” its annual Interview Boot Camp.

“Every college and university is going to say, ‘We have a great education program,’ but you want to see the proof. One of our proofs is Interview Boot Camp. Our alumni go out and do such great things in the field, and then care enough about the program to come back as mentors. They had a powerful, transformative experience here, and want to contribute to that same experience for our students now.”

And, under Cunnings’ leadership, the School has continued to expand student opportunities, most recently with the announcement of a new accelerated Online Elementary Education Program.

“Our traditional Education programs are delivered well. They are designed well. But in the 21st century, every higher education institution has to adapt. Learners have different needs. And I felt like the next big change we needed to see was in our online programs. 

“A lot of people think online programs are easy, or a degree mill. That you come out with a degree but no skills. So, we decided that, if we were going to do it, we wanted to do it the right way. Design it so it was just as effective as our traditional program, with the same strong student outcomes.”

Cunnings’ track record of doing things the right way has earned him recognition throughout his career. In 2015, he was invited by Harvard University to share his doctoral dissertation focusing on how he implemented digital learning technologies in a high school physics classroom. In 2018, he was the recipient of Millikin’s Alpha Lambda Delta Outstanding Teaching Award. In 2020, he received the James Millikin Estate Professorship in Education. And, in 2023, he won the College Football Playoff Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers Award.

When asked for an assessment of his career path so far, he had this to say: “Times change. People change. Society changes. You’re going to face ups and downs, but at the end of the day, your goal is to always better yourself professionally and personally. If you can do that, things will work out. I know, because I’m a testament to it.”