Maria Amélia Ferreira

Maria Amélia Ferreira (born 1955) is a Portuguese university professor and medical doctor. From 2014 to 2018 she was the director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, the first woman to hold this position. She was made a Grand Officer of the Portuguese Order of Merit in March 2021.

Training Maria Amélia Duarte Ferreira was born on 27 February 1955 in Vila Nova de Gaia, which is immediately south of the city of Porto on the left bank of the Douro river. As a student she wanted to study aeronautical engineering, with the intention of working for NASA, but for family reasons chose to study medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP). She began her course in 1972 and graduated in 1977. She obtained a doctorate from the same university in 1985 and then started teaching there, becoming a full professor in 1993. In 1997 she obtained a diploma in medical education at Cardiff University in Wales and then took a master's degree in medical education at the University of Lisbon in 2000.

Academic career Ferreira became director of the Medical Education Centre at FMUP in 2002. At FMUP Ferreira also served as director of the International Relations office, where she was involved in development cooperation programmes abroad, namely in Angola and Mozambique, implementing the Intergovernmental Cooperation Programme in the area of medicine between Portugal and Angola. In 2014, she was appointed director of the Faculty of Medicine, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She retired from the role of director in 2018 but remains a full professor. In her work she has particularly emphasized the development of digital tools to promote learning.

Other activities In 2012, she took on the role of director of the charity, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, in Marco de Canaveses, a municipality in the Porto district, where she has developed several projects aimed at the elderly, not only in the Santa Casa nursing home but also outside of it. She was responsible for creating a mobile health service and for improving support given to caregivers.

In March 2021, it was announced that she would be a candidate for the municipal council of Marco de Canaveses, as a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). She was already acting as an advisor to the council on gender equality.