Priscilla Chan, Cofounder & Co-CEO, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

View From The Top — Stanford Graduate School of Business

Photo by Hudson Hintze on Unsplash

Priscilla Chan on Social Impact and Systemic Change

Priscilla Chan is a physician, educator, and philanthropist who, along with her husband Mark Zuckerberg, founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in 2015. CZI aims to leverage technology, community-driven solutions, and collaboration to help solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. In a View from the Top conversation with Joy Pong and Rex Woodbury, Chan shared her personal story, her journey to social impact, and her insights on systemic change.

Chan’s Personal Story

Priscilla Chan is the daughter of Chinese Vietnamese refugees. Her grandparents were business people in Vietnam who worked at canning pineapple, making paper, and running a restaurant. When the war in Vietnam was getting to be a dark place, Chan’s grandparents decided to smuggle their children out of the country in pairs or threes to have company on the journey. In the middle of the night, they sent their kids off into the South China Sea in hopes that they would see each other again.

Chan’s parents eventually arrived in an Irish Catholic town outside of Boston, where they were sponsored by the Catholic Church. Chan was born and raised there, but she didn’t fit in. She was bullied in middle school and ate lunch in the bathroom. She decided to buckle down and work hard to get somewhere. She got into Harvard, which was confusing because her parents didn’t go to college and didn’t speak English. She felt like a failure and a fraud when she got to Harvard, but she realized that she wasn’t the only one who felt that way. She joined a service house called the Phillips Brooks House Association, where she met other people who had stories like hers. She realized that she wasn’t alone and that there was hope.

The Trolley Problem of Depth vs. Breadth of Impact

Chan has spoken about the trolley problem of depth vs. breadth of impact. Would you rather help 100 people deeply or help everyone a little bit? Chan believes that people naturally gravitate to one or the other, but to make systemic change, you need to understand both. To change the system, you need to understand what the problems are and what the real barriers are that affect the lives of the people you want to impact.

Chan’s brother is a doctor who subscribes to the philosophy of helping one patient deeply. Chan believes that being on the front lines is incredibly gratifying, but if you run into the same problem for the 100th or 1,000th time, you can lose hope. The work of changing the system gives Chan hope. At CZI, they hold staying close to the work as a core value. They intentionally hire people with both depth and breadth of impact. They understand that there will be disagreements, but that’s when you actually understand with clarity what you’re trying to do and then you can scale something meaningful, something good in the world.

Starting an Organization and Being a New Parent

Chan started CZI in the same year that she had her daughter Max. Being a new parent and starting an organization were both sleepless nights for different reasons. The core of it is that when you contribute to organizations of all different phases and stages, you need to understand the cadence, evolution, and growth of the organization. You need to solve the right problems at the right moment in time for the organization.

Balancing Depth and Breadth of Impact

Chan stepped away from medicine to be the co-CEO of CZI. One trait from her medicine days that has been surprisingly helpful in running CZI is that she loves being a student. She will soak in knowledge at any moment. The same thing that brought her to education, medicine, and CZI is that these are people’s lives they’re touching. People’s lives are complex. CZI needs to see the whole picture and can’t forget that.

CZI’s Areas of Focus

CZI’s areas of focus are education, science, and justice and opportunity. In education, they believe that every child should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background or zip code. They focus on personalized learning, improving teacher effectiveness, and developing tools and technology that empower students and educators. In science, they believe that science and technology can be a force for good in the world. They focus on curing, preventing, or managing all diseases by the end of the century, developing new technologies to advance scientific research, and supporting scientists and engineers who are tackling big problems. In justice and opportunity, they believe that everyone deserves a fair chance and that systemic change is possible. They focus on criminal justice reform, housing affordability, and immigration reform.

Systemic Change and CZI’s Approach

Chan believes that systemic change is possible and that CZI’s approach is to change the system by finding where the barriers are and then removing them. CZI’s approach is to be proximate, to stay close to the work, and to work with the people who are closest to the problem. They believe that the people who are closest to the problem are also closest to the solution. They want to create a world where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

CZI’s approach is to identify the root causes of problems and then to invest in long-term solutions that are sustainable and scalable. They believe that progress requires innovation, collaboration, and a focus on outcomes. They work with partners who share their commitment to social impact and systemic change. Their approach is to bring together experts from different fields to work together to solve big problems. They believe that by working together, they can achieve more than any single organization can on its own.

Conclusion

Priscilla Chan’s personal story and her work at CZI provide a powerful example of the impact that one person can have on the world. Her commitment to social impact and systemic change is inspiring, and her insights on balancing depth and breadth of impact, starting an organization, and creating meaningful change are invaluable. CZI’s approach to social impact is a model for other organizations and individuals who want to make a difference in the world. By being proximate, staying close to the work, and working with the people who are closest to the problem, we can create a world where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

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