Robin Gary Cummings, MD, a 2005 alumnus of the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) Foundation’s Leadership College, was installed as the sixth Chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Pembroke on Friday, April 8.
“It was a most meaningful presentation,” said NCMS CEO Robert W. Seligson, who attended the ceremony representing the NCMS along with NCMS Board member Michelle Jones, MD and her husband. “Dr. Cummings was born to take this job.”
Dr. Cummings is a native of Pembroke and a member of the Lumbee Tribe. The installation ceremony was dedicated to the memory of his parents, The Reverend Simeon F. and Mrs. Maude Cummings who “were ardent believers in the power of faith and education to change lives,” according to the program for the event.
Dr. Cummings, an NCMS member since 1998, is a board-certified general and cardiothoracic surgeon. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and his medical degree from Duke University Medical School where he interned in surgery and completed residencies in surgery and cardiac surgery. For 12 years, until 2004, Dr. Cummings practiced cardiothoracic surgery at the Pinehurst Surgical Clinic and Moore Regional Hospital.
In 2009, Dr. Cummings became medical director and executive director of Community Care of the Sandhills. In early 2013, he joined the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as Director of the NC Office of Rural Health and Community Care. Six months later, he was named Deputy Secretary for Health Services and Acting State Health Director, later taking on additional responsibility for the Division of Medical Assistance.
Last May, when the UNC Board of Governors elected Cummings as chancellor, then UNC President Tom Ross said of Dr. Cummings: “In a succession of challenging jobs in medicine and state government and through his volunteer service to the University and state, Robin Cummings has exhibited great imagination, energy and leadership. As a Pembroke native, member of the Lumbee tribe, and former chair of the UNC Pembroke Board of Trustees, he understands and appreciates the university’s rich history, and he is passionate about the larger role UNCP can play in the life of the region and its potential to change the future of so many North Carolinians.”
Congratulations Dr. Cummings!