She was a member of the Union of Greek Women or Enosis ton Hellenidon (Ένωση των Ελληνίδων) along with Kalliroi Parren.

Maria attended the first Panhellenic Medical Congress and campaigned for the fight against tuberculosis; also, she was the secretary of the International Council of Women in Greece from 1906–1909.

[1][2] Maria was born in Athens to an American woman named Martha Hooper Blackler Kalopothakes and a Greek surgeon Michail Kalapothakes.

Maria fought for women's rights throughout her life she was awarded the Silver Cross in 1899 in recognition of her selfless work.

She was the daughter of American missionary Martha Hooper Blackler Kalopothakes and the Greek surgeon Michael D. Kalopothakis.

Maria had two siblings Dimitrios Kalapothakis was an elder of the Evangelical Church and a journalist, her sister Daphne Kalopothakis was a pioneering archaeologist.

[4][5][6] Maria graduated from a Greek high school and then returned to the United States and attended the Harvard Annex (now Radcliffe College) where she received her bachelor's degree.

Because of her desire to help people and her experience assisting her father in medicine, Maria wanted to become a doctor.

She joined the organization entitled Union of Greek Women or Enosis ton Hellenidon (Ένωση των Ελληνίδων).

It was a charitable organization founded by Greek feminist and woman's rights activist Kalliroi Parren.

[4] Around this period, the organization Union of Greek Women separated its activities into two sections hygiene and nursing.

George Koromilas the head of the Medical School of Athens introduced a special method for treating tuberculosis by inhalation of sulfide of carbon.

[4] She served as a professor of hygiene in the Arsakeion high school for girls and was secretary of the International Council of Women in Greece in 1906–1909.

Madeleine Alexandrine Brès was the first woman in France to receive a medical degree in 1875 opening the door for Kalapothakes.

In 1885, Sevasti Kallisperi passed an examination administered by a board of Greek secondary school and university teachers to obtain higher education but the government refused to offer her a scholarship because there were no funds available for female students at the time, her father paid for the tuition.

Around the same period, another Greek woman Irini Nafpliotou was awarded a doctoral degree in Paris for a thesis entitled Arithmetic.

Kalliroi Parren wrote articles specifically indicating the difficulty women overcame to attend the University of Athens.

Theodora L. Lekka traveled from the United States and attended the University of Athens medical school graduating in 1929.