Natoshia R. Cunningham, PhD, is a 2025-2026 Fulbright US Scholar to Spain

Dr. Natoshia R Cunningham, PhD, is a Red Cedar Distinguished Professor and an Associate Professor in the College of Human Medicine, Department of Family Medicine at Michigan State University and directs the HELP PAIN Lab. She is a licensed clinical psychologist whose research focuses on 1) developing and testing psychological treatments for youth with chronic painful health conditions (e.g., lupus, functional abdominal pain) and co-occurring mental health symptoms, 2) studying neural mechanisms of pediatric pain and effect of psychological therapies for these conditions, and 3) increasing access to behavioral healthcare for pediatric chronic pain and mental health concerns using community-engaged and culturally adapted methods, with active projects in the US and abroad. She has published numerous scholarly papers in peer-reviewed journals, and holds current or recent grants from the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Defense, and several foundational sources, including the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance-Arthritis Foundation.  She is a clinical behavioral trialist and dissemination and implementation scientist committed to mentoring the next generation of clinical scientists.

Education/Training

Dr. Cunningham earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2011, specializing in the assessment and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. As part of her graduate training, she completed her clinical internship in pediatric behavioral medicine at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center from 2010-2011. She came to MSU from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric pain from 2011 to 2014 and served as research faculty from 2014 to 2019.