Priscilla Chan

Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American pediatrician and philanthropist. Chan has been married to Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive of Meta Platforms, since May 2012. In December 2015, Chan and Zuckerberg founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with a pledge to transfer 99 percent of their Meta shares, then valued at $45 billion, to venture capital and philanthropic initiatives.

Early life Chan was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, and grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts. Her parents were ethnic Chinese refugees who fled Vietnam in boats. Chan grew up speaking Cantonese and interpreted for her grandparents who raised her and her two younger sisters, Michelle and Elaine, while her parents worked. Chan's father owned a restaurant near Boston Symphony Hall and Northeastern University in Boston, which he later sold to run a wholesale fish company in 2006. Chan graduated valedictorian of her class from Quincy High School, and where she was the captain of the tennis team. She credits her public school teachers with recognizing hers and for "getting me excited about learning." Feeling out of place at the school, Chan planned to transfer to another institution; however, her involvement with the Franklin Afterschool Enrichment program, specifically an encounter with a young girl who had broken teeth, inspired Chan to stay and to become a pediatrician. where she graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2012 and then completed residency training in pediatrics in 2015. 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. In 2022, The Primary School received approximately $8 million in donations, and in 2023, the school recorded nearly $4 million in contributions. "due to a lack of funding". Chan did not attend meetings announcing the tuition-free school's closure, and parents are uncertain about what's next for their children. As part of the school's closure announcement, CZI pledged $50 million over five years to "parent engagement programs, early childhood education and health care services"

Critiques have been made regarding CZI, as it often tries to solve problems caused by social media, including Zuckerberg's very own social media platforms. Personal life Chan first met Mark Zuckerberg, the future co-founder and CEO of Facebook, at a fraternity party during her freshman year at Harvard University in 2003. The pair married on May 19, 2012, the day following Facebook's IPO. According to a Facebook post by Zuckerberg, Chan was a Buddhist. However, according to an Instagram post by Zuckerberg in 2023, Chan converted to Judaism in 2022.

In 2024, a green and silver statue of Chan commissioned by her husband Mark Zuckerberg was unveiled on Zuckerberg's Instagram account. The statue attracted considerable media attention and a debate as to whether it was a strange gesture.