The drip, drip, drip of chemotherapy fueled Carrie Atikian O’Malley’s determination. Not just to beat cancer, a disease that took the lives of her sister and father, but also to earn her law degree and deliver on a childhood dream. More than once, cancer had gotten in the way of that dream. No longer. As a member of the Class of ’26, the wife and mother of two college-aged children is using her law degree to help other families who are fighting life-threatening diseases.

Carrie Atikian O’Malley ’26

“You can never give up on your dreams,” says O’Malley. “My path didn’t take me straight there, but I never lost sight of it.” Her winding path to a Cornell Law J.D. degree included a twenty-year career in government, public policy, and public service, several years as a stay-at-home mother and wife, community advocate, and parent volunteer (including seven seasons as youth-baseball-team volunteer dugout coach!).

O’Malley grew up in Sherman Oaks, California, and earned her B.A., with highest honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with majors in Philosophy and Law and Society. She intended to obtain her law degree after college graduation, but decided to put that dream on hold while helping her family deal with some severe hardships and medical issues. She pivoted to a career in public service.

She worked for the Orange County Transportation Authority, Orange County Board of Supervisors, and California State Legislature/Assembly. As the latter’s District Director, she was awarded a commendation for her public policy work and legislative work, professionalism, teamwork, and for providing outstanding constituent services.

“When I was in government, we did a lot of constituent casework and great legislative advocacy, but I always felt something was missing because I wasn’t a lawyer. I realized that a law degree would allow me to do more to help those in need,” says O’Malley. The old dream kept resurfacing.

Early on during those two decades in public service, she lost her sister to pancreatic cancer, and later her father to prostate cancer.  Then, in early 2020, she faced her own breast cancer diagnosis. Her kids were in high school thinking about their own college careers. The dream returned in sharper focus. “During chemotherapy treatments in the midst of the pandemic, I reflected on my life and my intense drive to advocate for those needing health care advocacy and legal services,” says O’Malley. “Now, as a breast cancer survivor, I know how precious life is and how essential access to health care is for all.”

Visiting colleges with her son, a pitcher who was being recruited to play baseball, they were on a campus tour of Cornell. “The coach pointed out the Law School. My son and I smiled at each other and back at the hotel, Jack said ‘Mom, you should apply here.’” With the full support of her husband, John O’Malley, who is also an attorney, she took her son’s advice.

True to form, O’Malley seized opportunities at Cornell to serve the public interest through its clinics, as co-president of the Public Interest Law Union, and as a teaching assistant in public interest law and for the medical-legal partnership collaboration with Weill Cornell Health. This year, she was honored with the Seymour Herzog Public Interest Law Award.

Cornell “provided me with tremendous growth, development, and satisfaction, preparing me to hit the ground running after graduation.” She has accepted a two-year fellowship through Equal Justice Works to provide legal and healthcare advocacy and outreach to underserved families with children battling cancer and other serious illnesses. This medical-legal partnership will bring together the Emilio Nares Foundation and Public Law Center and “will reduce crushing stress, strengthen family stability, and ensure that caregivers can focus on what matters most: helping their children heal and thrive.”

With her son in college and her daughter Shannon pursuing her own law degree, O’Malley will return home with her dream fulfilled, using her law degree to serve.