Priscilla Chan (philanthropist)

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Priscilla Chan
File:Priscilla Chan in Prague (2013, cropped).jpg
Priscilla Chan in 2013
Born (1985-02-24) February 24, 1985 (age 39)[1]
Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S.
Residence Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Ethnicity Chinese
Citizenship American
Alma mater Harvard University (B.A.)
University of California, San Francisco (M.D.)
Occupation Pediatrician
Spouse(s) Mark Zuckerberg (m. 2012)
Children 1

Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American pediatrician and philanthropist. She is the wife of Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook. As of 2015, she and her husband have pledged more than $1.6 billion to charities. In December 2015, they pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares, valued at $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic and political action company that focuses on health and education.

Biography

Chan was born in Braintree, Massachusetts,[2] and grew up in Quincy, outside Boston. Her parents were ethnic Chinese refugees[3] who fled Vietnam in refugee boats. She grew up speaking Cantonese and served as interpreter for her grandparents. She has two younger sisters.[4] In 2003, she graduated as class valedictorian from Quincy High School, and was voted "class genius" by her classmates.[4]

Chan then entered Harvard University, where she met and began dating Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, in 2003. She graduated in 2007 with a BA in biology, and also studied Spanish. She is the first college graduate in her family.[4] After graduation she taught science at the private Harker School for a year, before entering the medical school of the University of California, San Francisco in 2008. She graduated in 2012, and finished her pediatric residency in the summer of 2015.[4] She married Zuckerberg on May 19, 2012, a day after Facebook's stock market launch.[4]

Chan and Zuckerberg announced the birth of their daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg ("Max", Chinese: 陈明宇; pinyin: Chén Míngyǔ[5]), on December 1, 2015.[6][7][8] Chan had previously had three miscarriages, which Zuckerberg wrote about in a Facebook post.[3]

Philanthropy

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Zuckerberg and Chan have pledged about $1.6 billion to charities,[9] including a donation of $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan worked.[4] In 2013, they gave 18 million Facebook shares (valued at more than $970 million) to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The Chronicle of Philanthropy placed the couple at the top of its list of 50 most generous American philanthropists for that year.[10] They also pledged $120 million to public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.[3]

On December 1, 2015, in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Chan and Zuckerberg pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares, then valued at $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, their new charitable foundation with focuses on health and education.[3][9]

Chan's charitable goals focus on education, healthcare and science, which are closely tied to her personal background.[4] She is considered to have had a strong influence on the philanthropy of her husband.[3] She plans to launch The Primary School in 2016, a nonprofit organization that will provide K–12 education as well as prenatal care, in East Palo Alto, California.[4]

References

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