Dr. Emmett Cunningham Jr. – Infectious and Inflammatory Eye Disease Specialist

Dr. Emmett Cunningham Jr.

Emmett Cunningham Jr., MD, PhD, MPH, an internationally recognized authority on infectious and inflammatory eye disease, trained at UCSF in the mid-1990s as an ophthalmology resident and as a fellow in cornea, external disease, and uveitis at the Proctor Foundation.

“ Resident and fellow education
is one of my
lifelong passions.”
– Dr. Emmett Cunningham Jr.

Dr. Cunningham remained at the foundation as director of the uveitis service and head of the Pearl and Samuel J. Kimura Ocular Immunology Laboratory until 2001. Since that time, he has held a number of positions, including clinical professor of ophthalmology and director of the uveitis service at the New York University School of Medicine, adjunct clinical professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine, director of the uveitis service at California Pacific Medical Center, senior vice president of medical strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, and partner at healthcare venture capital firm Clarus Ventures.

Now returned as a research associate, teaching will be his initial focus. “Resident and fellow education is one of my lifelong passions,” says Dr. Cunningham. He has received numerous awards for clinical teaching and written more than 300 publications. Dr. Cunningham received his doctorate in neuroscience from UC San Diego for work done at the Salk Institute and his medical and master’s of public health degrees from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He did additional fellowships in public health ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Center in Baltimore and in medical retina and uveitis at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.