Who We Are
Village Ed improves child well-being and success through a
variety of services, including counseling, academic support,
professional learning for schools, and school-based consultation.
​​
We promote well-being by offering individual counseling services and college advising in the state of North Carolina.​ We help families gain a deeper understanding of their children's learning abilities through academic achievement testing. We also support academic outcomes for children through targeted intervention services.
​
We enhance outcomes for students by providing consultation,
professional learning, and evaluation services to schools and districts.
We specialize in evidence-based family engagement practices,
comprehensive school suicide prevention programming,
and topics within the field of special education.​​​
Patrick Cunningham, Ph.D.
Dr. Patrick Cunningham is the founder of Village Ed, an Assistant Professor, and Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LCMHCA). He received his M.S. in Counseling from UNC Greensboro in 2014 and his Ph.D. in Counselor Education in 2023 from The Ohio State University. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated expertise in counseling, consulting, and professional development.
​
As a counselor, he has been a Licensed Professional School Counselor in the state of North Carolina since 2014 and an LCMHCA since 2025. Over his career, he gained over ten years of counseling experience in a variety of settings. He offers thorough clinical assessments, as well as individual and group counseling to children, adolescents, young adults, and adults with a wide variety of mental health diagnoses. He is competent in a variety of treatment modalities including Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Existential Therapy. Additionally, with over ten years of school counseling experience, he provides college and career advising for teens.
​
He has a passion for family engagement in education, which was cultivated while working with the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, a national leader in equipping schools and families with research-based tools to form more effective partnerships in support of student success. With the center, he led a project focused on partnerships to support student mental health, developed tools for schools and families to facilitate partnerships, and led numerous workshops for educators and families. As a faculty member at App State, his research is focused on family engagement practices, comprehensive school suicide prevention, and school counseling interventions.
Lucie Cunningham, M. A. Ed.
Lucie Cunningham is a licensed special education teacher and college instructor of special education courses. She received her M.A. Ed in Special Education with a specialization in learning disabilities, as well as a graduate certificate in autism, from East Carolina University in 2018. She has been working in the field of special education for over 12 years and is passionate about supporting learners with diverse needs.
She has experience supporting students in a wide range of educational settings including North Carolina Public Schools, private schools, international schools, and for private homeschool families. Her methods involve leveraging student strengths toward meaningful growth through evidence-based instruction and support. She believes in close collaboration with families to support students in reaching their individual goals. She has experience with a variety of teaching approaches and instructional curriculums in the areas of literacy, math, and social skills.
In addition to supporting students with learning needs, she enjoys training and supporting future and current teachers. She currently teaches college courses at East Carolina and Appalachian State around topics in special education.
.png)