Wendy

Cunningham-Sanders

Wendy Cunningham-Sanders graduated from Mississippi State University in May of 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology/Corrections and completed her internship in the victim assistance program with the Sixteenth Circuit Court District of the District Attorney’s Office in Columbus, Mississippi. Wendy graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in December 2002 and received her Master of Arts in Criminal Justice. In 2008, Wendy graduated from The Arkansas Victim Assistance Academy. In February 2020, Wendy was selected for the inaugural class of the Scharlette Holdman Mitigation Mentorship Program, sponsored by the ACLU Capital Punishment Project and she completed the year-long program.   

Wendy became a victim/witness coordinator at the Sixth Judicial District of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Pulaski County, AR in March of 1999. Wendy joined the staff of the Attorney General’s Office as an Investigator for the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Program in October of 2000 while simultaneously teaching courses in criminal justice at Park University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the Little Rock Air Force Base and Arkansas State University-Beebe. Wendy Cunningham-Sanders was promoted to the Assistant Administrator for the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Board in April of 2015 until August of 2017.

In August of 2017, Wendy began her career in capital defense as a mitigation specialist for the Arkansas Public Defender Commission. She worked as part of a defense team for clients who had been charged with Capital Murder. Wendy Cunningham-Sanders is currently a mitigation investigator with the Federal Public Defender Office of the Eastern District of Arkansas, where she enjoys her career in the capital habeas unit and she continues to work with clients who are currently on death row.

Wendy is very active in her community and has given back at her church during community health events at First Baptist Church in North Little Rock where Rev. William L. Robinson is the pastor. Wendy Cunningham-Sanders also served as Treasurer of the First Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir from 2012 to 2018. Wendy is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she was initiated at Mississippi State University in March of 1996. She later joined Little Rock Alumnae Chapter where she is currently a member.