From Pruden to Public Health

When Dr. Mari Armstrong-Hough ’99 walks into her lab at New York University each morning, she brings with her not only a wealth of experience and education, but a deeply, purpose-driven commitment to improving the lives of patients with lung disease around the world. An Associate Professor and NIH-funded researcher, Mari leads studies focused on tuberculosis (TB) and respiratory failure, working across the United States, Uganda, and Vietnam to transform care for some of the world’s most vulnerable patients.

 

Her path to epidemiology and global health wasn’t a straight line. After earning a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2003 and a PhD from Duke in 2011, she pivoted from the social sciences to retrain in epidemiology. She later earned an MPH from Yale in 2016. It was during this time that her professional calling became deeply personal: just as she began studying microbial disease, she learned she had been exposed to tuberculosis.

 

“I was horrified to realize that TB kills more people worldwide than any other infectious agent—even though it’s curable,” she says. “It’s a plague we have the tools to eradicate in our own lifetimes. I decided to focus on TB research, and that’s how I ended up in lung health.” 

Today, Mari directs a research lab at NYU that designs studies, leads clinical trials, mentors PhD students, and analyzes complex data—all in service of a mission to improve patient outcomes worldwide. “Sometimes I’m running the show, sometimes I’m playing a supporting role, sometimes I’m just trying not to get in the way,” she says with characteristic humility. She traces her adaptable, collaborative spirit back to Chatham Hall. 

“Chatham made me a more expansive, interdisciplinary, and collaborative thinker,” Mari reflects. “It prepared me to be more than one kind of thinker and leader.”

From sweeping memories of Mr. Curtis outside Pruden Hall to the quiet influence of teachers like Claudia Emerson ’75, Dr. Beal, Dr. Black, and Ms. Mullen, Mari credits the School with shaping both her intellectual life and her worldview. Her education was never just about grades, it was always rooted in growth. 

“The purpose of education isn’t to get you a job,” she says. “It’s to give you the intellectual and emotional tools to find your purpose.” Gold-spirited through and through, Mari is a shining example of what’s possible when passion meets purpose—and how a Chatham Hall foundation can echo across continents.