Priscilla Chan (philanthropist) - Pediatrician Education

Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American philanthropist and pediatrician. Her husband is Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook. As of 2015, she and her husband 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, and grew up in Quincy, outside Boston. Her parents were ethnic Chinese refugees who fled Vietnam in refugee boats. She grew up speaking Cantonese and served as interpreter for her grandparents. She has two younger sisters. In 2003, she graduated as class valedictorian from Quincy High School, and was voted "class genius" by her classmates. According to one Facebook post by Zuckerberg, Chan is a Buddhist.

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 fluent in Chinese, English and Spanish. She is the first college graduate in her family. 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. She married Zuckerberg on May 19, 2012, a day after Facebook's stock market launch.

Chan and Zuckerberg announced the birth of their daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg ("Max", Chinese: 陈明宇; pinyin: Chén MíngyÇ"; Jyutping: Can4 Ming4 Jyu5), on December 1, 2015.

Philanthropy

Zuckerberg and Chan have pledged about $1.6 billion to charities, including a donation of $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan worked. 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. They also pledged $120 million to public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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.

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

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