UC President James B. Milliken awards UC Presidential Medal to Joan and Sanford I. Weill

University of California President James B. Milliken has awarded the UC Presidential Medal to Joan and Sanford I. Weill in recognition of their years of extraordinary service and transformative support of the university across the arts and sciences.

The Presidential Medal is the university’s highest honor. UC President Milliken awarded the medal to the Weills on Oct. 29, during the 2025 Future of the Brain Summit at UC San Francisco, held on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Joining President Milliken in honoring the Weills for their remarkable contributions and steadfast support were the chancellors and senior leaders of UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC San Francisco, as well as former UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and his wife, Brenda Drake.

“Joan and Sandy’s enormously thoughtful and generous spirit is laser-focused, practical, passionate and future-focused,” said Milliken in bestowing the award. “They embody and inspire the ethos of public service that makes the University of California what it is. There are no two people more deserving of the University of California’s deepest appreciation than Sandy and Joan Weill.”

Joan and Sandy Weill are prolific philanthropists who have made more than $1 billion in gifts to educational and cultural institutions in their 70 years together, including to UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC San Francisco.

Their longtime service to UC has included leadership roles on the UC Berkeley Board of Visitors, the UC Davis Chancellors’ Advisory Board, the UCSF Foundation Board of Directors, and the UCSF Health Executive Council. And the Weills’ philanthropic gifts have played a major role in advancing critical scientific and medical research across the university.

The Weills also have a philanthropic passion for supporting veterinary medicine — one of Joan’s childhood dreams was to become a veterinarian — and translational medicine, a field of work that embodies the belief that what we learn from animal medicine can profoundly inform human medicine, and vice versa.

Their giving to UC Davis is instrumental in the School of Veterinary Medicine's ability to launch new trials, including multi-site comparative trials such as that of inhaled IL-15, a novel immunotherapy approach to treat metastatic oral melanoma. The trial was able to help 9-year-old Lola, a golden retriever, beat cancer against all odds. The Joan Weill Translational Medicine Research Endowment to support the Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials within the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, created in 2024, is helping support similar work.

The Weills have also been clients of the Veterinary Medicine school; they enrolled their dog Angel in a veterinary clinical trial at UC Davis after she became seriously ill.  The trial significantly enhanced her quality of life during her final months and contributed to advancing veterinary research, science and discovery. Ultimately, the trial helped to improve outcomes for other animals in the future.

“Joan and Sandy’s deeply held commitment to improving the health of all living beings leads them to champion not only human medicine but animal medicine as well, and advances the interconnectedness of the two fields,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May. “They are very deserving of the highest honor at the University of California, where their vision helps us create a healthier world for all every day.”

Read the entire article at the University of California website.