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An Enduring Legacy

Growing up, Autumn Tangney’s perspective on modern health care—both its benefits and limitations—was shaped by her family. 

Growing up, Autumn Tangney’s perspective on modern health care—both its benefits and limitations—was shaped by her family. 

Tangney, a Master of Science in Public Health student in the Department of International Health’s Health Systems program, was raised by a single mother and her grandmother in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. 

“I’m very motivated by not coming from much and wanting so much more,” she said. 

"I'm very motivated by not coming from much and wanting so much more"

During Tangney’s youth, her mother put herself through nursing school and often expressed frustrations with overcrowding and administrative inefficiencies in the health care system. Her father’s experiences with health services were often frustrating; he was chronically ill and struggled with mental health and substance abuse. 

“He always feared the health system,” Tangney recalled. “He wasn't educated about it and saw it as inaccessible and unaffordable.” 

At Providence College, Tangney majored in political science and immersed herself in extracurricular and volunteer opportunities. At the school, she started an Education Collaboration Committee, doing advocacy work with LGBTQ+ coalitions, and a safety and security task force. 

In her sophomore year, when Tangney was interning virtually with the Ministry of Health in Kenya, she learned that her father had passed away from COVID-19 and compounding health effects from tuberculosis and cirrhosis of the liver. 

“I thought a lot about how his socioeconomic status impacted him, his poverty and his lack of education and his fear around health care, mental health, and physical health,” she said. “It hindered him from the life that he could have had—the life that he deserved.” 

His passing motivated Tangney to pursue a career that directly promoted health equity at the patient level. She picked up a second major in health policy and management, and entered the Bloomberg School after graduating in 2023.

The School, with its global reputation and distinction as the No. 1 school of public health in the country, appealed to her. She was particularly impressed by its extensive alumni network of more than 28,000 and the professional connections. 

“Everyone around me was so motivated,” Tangney said. “I just felt instantly inspired when I stepped on campus.” 

"I just felt instantly inspired when I stepped on campus"

Tangney moved to Laurel, Maryland, to attend the School, and it wasn’t long before she was working in the Baltimore community. She was an outreach assistant with the HEAL Refugee Health & Asylum Collaborative through the Department of Pediatrics in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and was a research assistant on a harm reduction and HIV risk factor study in connection with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society.

In the process, she fell in love with the Baltimore area—from the food, to the diversity, to the opportunities. 

Now in the second year of her MSPH program, with an expected graduation in May 2025, Tangney is also pursuing certificates in leadership for public health and health care and humanitarian health.

“I've definitely had a lot of opportunities to be involved in the community and then take all that Hopkins has to offer professionally and really thrive,” she said. 

Last summer Tangney was awarded a Global Health Established Field Placement grant through the at Hopkins which allowed her to travel to India to work with a program that served adolescents living with perinatally acquired HIV. 

While in India, she worked with the RISHI Foundation to develop training modules for support groups in four areas: health, education, gender, and well-being.

Tangney continues to work with the School’s International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the RISHI Foundation based in Bangalore, India.

Tangney has moved to the greater Boston area and remains committed to promoting health equity after graduating.

“Bloomberg is a place where whatever you put in, you can take out,” Tangney said. “And I feel like I have taken so much.”