The Vincent Memorial Hospital Foundation (VMHF) is pleased to introduce our community to Nawal Nour, MD, MPH, MBA. Dr. Nour is the inaugural Chair of the integrated Mass General Brigham (MGB) department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, formed by the consolidation of two renowned institutions — Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) — into academic medical centers focused on unifying departments at the two institutions. In her presentation to the VMHF Board of Trustees in September 2025, Dr. Nour said, “My goal is to integrate the strengths of the OB/GYN faculty and programs while holding onto the cultures that define Mass General and Brigham and Women’s.” Recognizing that the VMHF’s funding priorities include the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, she announced this acclaimed basic science laboratory will remain at Mass General. And for the foreseeable future, the Vincent OB/GYN fellowships, a subspecialty training program also supported by the VMHF, will continue to be administered by Mass General. She described progress in integrating the two hospitals’ OB/GYN programs, including the ongoing process of appointing divisional leaders (see stories below),

Dr. Nour is the Kate Macy Ladd Endowed Professor at Harvard Medical School. Before her Mass General Brigham appointment, she chaired the BWH Department of OB/GYN. Born in the Sudan and raised in Egypt and England, she is the Founding Director of the African Women’s Health Center at BWH, the only U.S. hospital center that focuses on supporting the physical and emotional needs of those who have undergone female genital cutting (FGC), the focus of her research, clinical practice and international advocacy work. For these efforts, she was honored as a 2003 MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In 2017, Dr. Nour was listed in Forbes magazine’s “40 Women to Watch Over 40.”

After coming to the United States in 1980, Dr. Nour earned a BA from Brown University (1984) and an MD at Harvard Medical School (1994), after which she completed a residency in OB/GYN at BWH (1998), an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (1999) and an MBA from Imperial College in London (2023). She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Bowdoin College and Williams College for her community work and outreach. She is the recipient of the American Medical Women’s Association Lila A. Wallis Women’s Health Award.

Among prominent leadership positions, Dr. Nour presently serves on the Board of Trustees at BWH, where in addition to leading the OB/GYN Department since 2020, she also was Director of the BWH Division of Global Obstetrics and Gynecologic Health, as well as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Dr. Nour serves as Head of Delegation at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, where she represents Mass General Brigham in high-level dialogues with global leaders and policymakers to advance innovation, health equity, and transformative public-private partnerships. She also plays an active role on the Global Advisory of Women’s Health Champions, a distinguished council of senior leaders from diverse regions and sectors dedicated to closing the global women’s health gap.