Purpose Driven: Bobby Cunningham

Dr. Bobby Cunningham, principal of the W. R. Rogers Adult, Continuing & Technology Education Center in Richland School District Two is one of four school leaders from across the state selected by the South Carolina Association of School Administrators (SCASA) as a 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. 

Dr. Cunningham joined the Richland Two family in 1979. His storied educational career in the district includes working as an interim high school principal, assistant principal, mathematics teacher, and basketball and track coach. Since 2011, he has served as the principal of the Rogers Center. There he has continued to exemplify servant leadership by expanding opportunities for success and reaching students others struggle to motivate. 

In this role, Dr. Cunningham has received several accolades, including being named 2021 SCASA Adult Education Director of the Year, winning the Goodwill Partners in Power of Work Award in 2012, and being named the 2013 SCASA Adult Education Rookie Director of the Year.  In 2019, he was elected to the South Carolina Association of Adult Education Directors Board and served as president from 2019-2020. Dr. Cunningham served on the SCASA Executive Board from 2019-2022 and has served on the Midlands Workforce Development Board of Directors since 2016. 

In receiving the honor at the SCASA Innovative Ideas Institute this month at Myrtle Beach, Dr. Cunningham said, “I accept this award standing on the shoulders of my wife, family, and church family, whose faith, hope, and love never failed. Thank you to the communities who trusted me to serve those you held most dear, particularly my families at Richland Two and the W.R. Rogers Center who were always premier.”

Each year SCASA selects exemplars of educational leadership to receive the award. Dr. Cunningham is the second consecutive Richland Two employee to receive this award. Retired principal of Forest Lake Elementary NASA Explorer School, Dr. Kappy Steck, received the award in 2022.