Maria Adaeze Okonkwo, of Capitol Hill, Seattle, died on the morning of Saturday, May 11, 2026, at Swedish Medical Center, surrounded by her two daughters and her sister. She was sixty-four years old.
Maria was born May 4, 1962, in Enugu, Nigeria, the fourth of six children of Chukwuemeka and Adaeze Nwosu. She emigrated to the United States in 1984 on a Fulbright Scholarship to study epidemiology at the University of Washington. She never left Seattle. She married Kenneth Okonkwo, a fellow Nigerian transplant and the love of her life, at St. Mark's Cathedral in 1991; he predeceased her in 2018.
Maria spent thirty-one years as a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, where she led the Hutch's landmark study on cervical-cancer screening uptake in sub-Saharan Africa. The study and her subsequent advocacy work are credited with bringing affordable screening to fourteen Nigerian states. She published forty-eight papers, mentored more than seventy graduate students, and traveled to Lagos for fieldwork twenty-three times.
She loved her daughters — Adaeze, born 1994; Chioma, born 1997 — without bound. She loved Seattle's rain. She loved the Sounders, the Storm, the Mariners (long-sufferingly). She loved a particular Capitol Hill jollof rice shop and refused to learn the address of the next-nearest competitor. She loved her sister Ngozi, who flew in from Enugu in March and stayed.
Maria chose Marker because, in her own words, "I have written quite enough papers in my life. I do not need anyone to write me one more." She had pre-planned with us in 2024, three months after her diagnosis. She knew what she wanted: cremation, a small memorial in the chapel, no flowers — donations to the Hutch in her place.
She kept her composure with the dignity of someone who had attended a great many such conversations professionally. The day she came in to sign her plan, she also asked Lena to make sure the chapel had cookies for her daughters. There will be cookies.
Survivors
Maria is survived by her two daughters, Adaeze Okonkwo (Marcus) of Capitol Hill and Chioma Okonkwo of San Francisco; her sister Ngozi Nwosu-Eze of Enugu, Nigeria; her brothers Obi Nwosu of Lagos and Chidi Nwosu of London; and a great many graduate students who continue her work. She was preceded in death by her husband Kenneth, by her parents, and by her sister Adaobi.
Service Information
A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 17, 2026, at 2:00 PM in the Marker chapel, 2114 Western Avenue, Seattle. Direct cremation has already been completed per Maria's wishes; her cremated remains will be present at the service.
The Rev. Adeline Okafor of St. Mark's Cathedral will officiate. The service will be conducted in English with brief readings in Igbo. Live-stream will be available for distant family at the link posted on this page on the morning of the 17th.
Memorial Donations
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be directed to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, designated for the Cervical Cancer Screening Africa Initiative — the work Maria gave thirty years of her life to.