Establishment of the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health

To the Anteater Community: 

I am delighted to announce two extraordinary moments in this university’s history. The University of California Board of Regents has approved the elevation of our Program in Public Health to full school status, and the new school will be named the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health in recognition of a gift from Joe C. Wen and his family.

When the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences was established in 2017, UC Irvine committed to elevating all our health science programs to full schools, and I am delighted that the Regents have completed the final part of that promise. The mission of the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, the only school of its type in the Orange County region, is to promote and advance health equity for all populations through research, teaching, service, and public health practice, locally and globally. 

I am grateful to Founding Dean Bernadette Boden-Albala for her exceptional leadership and the entire faculty, staff and students of Wen Public Health for their dedication and hard work in making this achievement possible.

Joe C. Wen and his family immigrated to the United States from Taiwan when he was a teenager. After earning a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and an MBA from the University of Southern California, he started a paper trading company, now known as Formosa Ltd., which today is a thriving multinational conglomerate. Two years ago, he and his family supported with a $20 million gift the construction of the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care, an outpatient clinical facility at the new UCI Health – Irvine complex, which opened in April. Their latest gift, of $50 million, is a further testament to their remarkable commitment to advancing human health and well-being. $42.5 million will support the highest priorities of the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health. The remaining $7.5 million is dedicated to advancing cardiology research, education and clinical operations within the School of Medicine and the UCI Health system. In honor of Joe C. Wen’s parents, the Division of Cardiology in the School of Medicine is now named the Mary & Steve Wen Cardiovascular Division. And in memory of Mr. Wen’s grandfather, we are pleased to establish the Tsai Ya Au Heart & Vascular Pavilion at UCI Medical Center.

Please join me in expressing our deepest gratitude to Mr. Wen and the Wen family for their farsighted philanthropy and exceptional support.

Howard Gillman
Chancellor, UC Irvine