From loss to life's work, the health communications expert helps people get the information they need to make medical decisions with confidence
Story by Leila Okahata
Photos by Chris Larsen and courtesy of Autumn Shafer
September 30, 2026
In celebration of 150 years, the University of Oregon is featuring portraits of more than 150 Ducks who are unstoppable - who embody the enduring strength and spirit of the university. OregonNews will profile a handful of them, including Autumn Shafer, whose curiosity has carried her from political campaigns to public health, building a career around how better communication can help people make informed decisions about their health.
In high school, years before public health became her profession, Autumn Shafer mounted a health campaign at home.
When her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, she asked her parents what caused the disease. Their answer: smoking.
Both of her parents smoked. While her grandmother succumbed to the disease, Shafer lobbied her parents to quit.
"I was relentless, as my parents can tell you, and they both don't smoke anymore," said Shafer, a health communications researcher and associate professor of public relations at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. "That was my first health communications campaign, in a way, and my first successful one. But born from tragedy because I loved my grandma, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to my parents."
Today, Shafer researches what motivates people to make healthy choices and how communication can make a difference. She has spent her career learning how to reach people - from policymakers to patients - and using those lessons to deliver accessible health information that empowers people to make informed decisions.
Growing up in Tacoma, Washington, Shafer saw how gaps in health information could keep people in her community from seeking care. When health guidance isn't clear, people may postpone or skip medical care, which Shafer said raises the stakes for diseases like skin and breast cancer that are oftentimes treatable when caught early.
For Shafer, that makes early detection and prevention of health conditions not only a medical challenge but also a communications challenge.
"I think everyone has a story of someone they know who postponed getting treatment or had not realized that something like the blemish on their face was worth asking a doctor about," she said.
Having lived homeless for part of her childhood, Shafer approaches her work from a place of experience and empathy, not assumption.
"There are so many basic needs that are unmet when people are living in impoverished environments," Shafer said. "Figuring out public health isn't always at the top of their mind, so I think about that a lot and try to make sure that my messages are very accessible and lead people to making healthy choices."
Autumn Shafer's work in the UO Center for Science Communication Research sits at the intersection of persuasion, communication and public health.
The importance of chance in career exploration
Shafer's early and personal commitment to public health took her on a scientific path for her undergraduate degree. The first in her family to attend college, she was a shining chemistry student at Washington State University, and math especially came easily to her.
But what set her career in motion was a class she almost overlooked: public speaking, which she initially enrolled in to fulfill a general elective requirement for her degree. Drawn to how the subtleties of language can shape the meaning of a message, she took another communications course, then another, before realizing she wanted to change her major to communications and study the subject full time.
Shafer didn't find her niche in health communications until later. After college she went into politics, working as a campaign manager and legislative aide in Washington state. Her eventual transition from political communications to public health was less an abandonment than a continuation of a question she kept returning to: What makes someone trust a message and act on it?
At the UO Center for Science Communication Research, Shafer focuses largely on cancer communication, including the role of social media in helping people recognize signs of skin cancer earlier.
"Melanoma is the only cancer that you can see with your own eyes, but people often ask, 'What does melanoma look like? How do I check for it? How often should I check?'" Shafer said. "The problems with getting people to recognize melanoma seemed like things that communication could help us solve."
She's also a communications strategist at the Healthy Oregon Project, which provides health information for more than 54,000 Oregonians. Since 2019, the group has provided free genetic screening for 32 variants of cancer. They've identified thousands of people statewide who had an elevated risk for cancer and didn't know it, connecting them with genetic counselors - healthcare professionals who work with people undergoing genetic testing - and follow-up care.
Like many diseases, cancer comes with its own language, Shafer said. Words like predisposition, penetrance, and positive biopsy can leave patients lost in translation of a diagnosis and next steps. The outcomes from the Healthy Oregon Project help clinicians and health researchers learn how to translate the medical jargon, risk statistics and prevention strategies into clear messages that can save lives
"I really enjoy doing something meaningful with my life and my work," Shafer said. "And I feel helping people prevent cancer and find cancer earlier when it's more treatable is just a great way to spend my research time."
Quick Facts
Hobbies
Baking and reading. She finishes a book every 10 days!
Favorite Musical Artist
Taylor Swift ("I'm a Swifty - big time!")
In College
Varsity athlete and coxswain on the women's rowing team at Washington State University
Advice to Students
"Connect with at least one professor that you feel like you could email after school ends. It doesn't mean you have to see them every day, but check in with them after class or during their office hours, even if you had them two terms ago."
"It's my way of giving back and hopefully doing good in this world with my time."
Autumn Shafer
Associate Professor of Public Relations
A champion of kindness
Among the many signs that Shafer is making a difference, one came in just a couple of words. In an end-of-term teaching evaluation two years ago, a student solely wrote, "insanely kind."
"That's exactly how I want to be described," Shafer said. "And obviously I can also be rigorous and get out the red pen too. But the classroom was a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for me growing up, and that's what I want school to be for my students."
But Shafer doesn't rest on her laurels. She keeps going.
"Whenever I get those emails of gratitude from either patients or students, I tell myself that I'm going to stay up late or work a little harder," she added. "It's my way of giving back and hopefully doing good in this world with my time."
