As a child in Nicaragua, Marcela del Carmen Amaya ’99 was captivated by her grandfather’s library. Its walls were lined with photos from his residency at Johns Hopkins, where he trained as a urologist in the 1940s before later becoming a public health minister
in Nicaragua.

“I remember thinking, whatever he does, I want to do too because people seemed so grateful and connected to him,” recalls del Carmen, who later followed his path to Johns Hopkins for medical school and her
ob-gyn residency.

Today, del Carmen serves as the first female president of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, and executive vice president of the Mass General Brigham health care system. Under her leadership, financial support has doubled to diversify the pool of medical specialists, and she launched the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program, Mass General’s first real-time data system measuring multidisciplinary clinical performance.

Born in Managua, Nicaragua, del Carmen’s young life was shaped by political upheaval. At age 10, she fled the country’s revolution with her family, resettling in the U.S. in Seattle and then Miami.

As a first-year Johns Hopkins medical student in 1995, del Carmen bore intimate witness to the cancer care of a family friend, a young boy with leukemia — an experience that nudged her toward oncology. She ultimately specialized in gynecologic oncology.

Del Carmen joined Mass General in 1999 for her fellowship training in gynecologic oncology and briefly returned to Johns Hopkins — recruited to join the faculty by Frederick “Rick” Montz, then director of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service. After Montz’s sudden death at age 47, del Carmen made Mass General her professional home.

Del Carmen became president of Mass General in 2021 while continuing to serve as president of the Mass General Physicians Organization and practicing as a gynecologic oncologist. She is also professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School — the first Latina and first woman in the department to achieve this rank.