1849
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to graduate from an established or “regular” American medical school — New York’s Geneva College of Medicine — today known SUNY Upstate Medical University College of Medicine.
1864
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first black American in the United States to earn her medical degree from the New England Female Medical College.
1853
Dr. Nancy Clark is the first female physician to apply for membership to the Massachusetts Medical Society and is denied entrance.
1872
Dr. Susan Dimock applies for admission to the MMS and is denied admittance.
1880
Seventeen state medical societies indicate that gender is not grounds for denying admission. By 1881, 115 women physicians are members of state medical societies.
1884
Dr. Emma Louisa Call, who received her MD from the University of Michigan Medical School, is admitted as the first woman physician member to the MMS.
1985 - 1987
Dr. Barbara A. P. Rockett, a female surgeon from Newton, becomes the first woman president and the only president to serve two consecutive terms.
1998
Dr. Marylou Buyse, a pediatrician who graduated from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, becomes the second woman president of the MMS.
2000
Dr. Virginia Latham, a physician whose contributions to organized medicine span more than three decades, becomes the third woman president in the history of the MMS.
2010
Dr. Alice A. Tolbert Coombs, a critical-care specialist and anesthesiologist who graduated from the University of Southern California and the UCLA School of Medicine, becomes the first Black woman physician to serve as president of the Society.
2011
Dr. Lynda Young, a pediatrician and graduate of New York Medical College, becomes the fifth woman president of the Society.
2019
Creation of the MMS Women Physicians Section.
Dr. Maryanne C. Bombaugh, an obstetrician/gynecologist and a veteran of the United States military, is elected president of the Medical Society. At 41%, Massachusetts ranks #1 as the highest percentage of active women physicians.
2021
Dr. Carole Allen, a longtime trustee and delegate to the Medical Society, is a board-certified pediatrician who practiced in Massachusetts for 37 years before retiring in 2011, becomes the seventh woman president of the Society.
2023
Dr. Barbara Spivak, an internist and graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, becomes the 8th woman president of the MMS.
