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2025 Power 100: Dr. Cherise Hamblin

Medical director/Founder of UMass Memorial Health doula program/Patients R Waiting

Dr. Cherise Hamblin

Title

Medical director; founder

Company

UMass Memorial Medical Center doula program, in Worcester; Patients R Waiting, in Pennsylvania

Employees

20,812 at UMass Memorial

Residence

Worcester

Colleges

Franklin & Marshall College, Northwestern University

Read all the 2025 Power 100 profiles here

As maternal morbidity rates continue to rise throughout the state, Hamblin has become one of the region’s most ardent advocates for the interrelated causes of addressing Black maternal health and diversifying healthcare professionals. Hamblin spends about half of her time providing direct care as an OB/GYN and attending physician at UMass Memorial while the other half is devoted to developing novel ways to enhance care for patients and the greater community.

Since MassHealth announced in December 2023 it would cover doula care, Hamblin and UMMC’s doula program have assembled to meet this heightened access, including creating new materials detailing services.

As the founder of Patients R Waiting, whose mission is to eliminate health disparities by increasing diversity in medicine, Hamblin brought the Pipeline Dreams program to UMass Chan Medical School in January, providing 29 high school students with 12 weeks of exposure to healthcare careers. The program was managed by the school’s Collaborative in Health Equity, where Hamblin serves as a director. 

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.

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