Philanthropist couple donates $40M to Surrey\u2019s SFU school of medicine<\/p>\n
Published 1:11 pm Friday, June 5, 2026<\/p>\n
Simon Fraser University\u2019s school of medicine has received a whopping $40 million gift from the Stephens family, after whom the school in downtown Surrey will be named.<\/p>\n
This, the largest single donation in SFU\u2019s history, was revealed Friday on behalf of the family, led by Ratana and Arran Stephens \u2013 co-founders of Nature\u2019s Path and principals of Que Pasa.<\/p>\n
Their gift to the SFU Stephens Family School of Medicine will support research and innovation, training for students as well as critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Ratana thanked SFU for partnering with their family \u201cin bringing this vision to light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arran noted B.C. is facing a \u201cprofound and urgent challenge \u2013 a critical shortage of family doctors leaving far too many people without access to the care they need. I know people have said that for two years they\u2019ve been trying to get a family doctor without success.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupporting this medical school is not just about education, it\u2019s about strengthening the future of our health care system and we want to acknowledge the important partnership of the province of British Columbia whose leadership and investment are helping make this new school possible,\u201d the philanthropist said. \u201cThis is a shared effort and a meaningful step forward for health care in this province.\u201d<\/p>\n
SFU President Joy Johnson said their \u201cvisionary gift is transformative\u201d for the new school as it prepares to take in its first 48 students in August. Subsequent cohorts are expected to increase to 120 students by 2035.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis visionary gift is transformative for SFU\u2019s new school of medicine as we prepare to welcome our first students in August 2026,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are deeply grateful to Ratana, Arran and their family for their extraordinary generosity, which will enhance the future of medical education and health innovation in B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surrey\u2019s is Western Canada\u2019s first new medical school in nearly 60 years.<\/p>\n
Premier David Eby noted this state-of-the-art medical school \u201cwill make Surrey a hub of innovative, high-quality health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SFU Stephens Family School of Medicine will train the next generation of doctors right here in B.C., which will help more people find a family doctor close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eby thanked the family for their \u201cremarkable generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philanthropist couple donates $40M to Surrey\u2019s SFU school of medicine Published 1:11 pm Friday, June 5, 2026 Simon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-720320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}