Santa Clara Gets New Medical School

Santa Clara University and Sutter Health said on May 15 they will launch the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine, creating a new physician-training pipeline in Silicon Valley and giving the San Francisco Bay Area its first new medical school in more than a century. The partners said the school will be funded in part by a $175 million gift from Santa Clara trustee Mary Stevens and her husband, venture capitalist Mark Stevens. The future campus is an 82,000-square-foot facility under construction near Sutter’s East Santa Clara campus, according to the university. The announcement ties the school to Sutter’s broader expansion in Santa Clara, where the health system is also planning a major new hospital campus. ### Who is building the school, and what is each side bringing to it? Sutter Health and Santa Clara University are creating the school as a joint venture that links an academic institution with a large California care network. Santa Clara said the project advances its Impact 2030 strategic plan, while Sutter described it as part of a push to build a “learning health system” that combines education, research and patient care. (scu.edu) Warner Thomas, Sutter Health’s president and chief executive, said in the announcement that the system chose Santa Clara because of “shared values” and a “more human-centered, forward-looking model of care.” The school will carry the Stevens family name as the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine. (scu.edu) ### Why does the $175 million gift stand out? The $175 million commitment is the largest gift ever received by either Santa Clara University or Sutter Health, according to the university’s May 15 release. Santa Clara also said it is the largest-ever cash gift to Catholic higher education. (scu.edu) Mary Stevens, a 1984 Santa Clara alumna, serves as a university trustee, and the university said she and Mark Stevens have been long-time supporters of both institutions. Santa Clara identified Mark Stevens as a venture capitalist and said the family are multi-decade Sutter patients. (scu.edu) ### Where will the campus sit, and how does it connect to Sutter’s hospital plans? The school’s campus is being built about five miles from Santa Clara University’s historic mission campus and next to Sutter’s East Santa Clara campus, the university said. Santa Clara’s release described the medical school building as 82,000 square feet. (scu.edu) A separate City of Santa Clara notice for a Sutter community meeting described a proposed hospital project at 2831 Mission College Boulevard as an 850,000-square-foot, eight-story facility with 302 beds, a rooftop heliport and a central utility plant. That city notice differs from Santa Clara University’s May 15 release, which said Sutter plans a 272-bed, eight-story medical center on its West Santa Clara campus by 2031. Neither the university release nor Sutter’s public education page explained the difference. (scu.edu) ### Why are Santa Clara and Sutter framing this around the physician workforce? California’s physician workforce remains a standing policy issue. A December 2024 University of California report said state law requires an annual review of physician shortages by specialty and region, and described the state’s physician workforce and training pipeline as a continuing focus for policymakers. (santaclaraca.gov) Sutter’s education page says the new school will be woven into its integrated care system so future physicians train alongside existing care teams. The health system already operates graduate medical education and other clinical training programs, which gives it an existing platform for physician training as the school develops. ### Is this really the first new Bay Area medical school in a century? (ucop.edu) Santa Clara University’s formal announcement said the project would establish the first new medical school in the San Francisco Bay Area in more than a century. Sutter’s education page uses different wording, calling it the first new medical school to open in the Bay Area in nearly 30 years and the first new school in the San Francisco Bay Area in nearly 30 years on another section of the site. (sutterhealth.org) The partners have not publicly reconciled that wording in the materials reviewed. May 15 is the only public launch date the partners gave in the materials reviewed, and neither Santa Clara nor Sutter publicly listed in those materials when the first class would enroll or when accreditation milestones would be filed. Sutter’s next named construction milestone is the planned opening of its West Santa Clara medical center by 2031, while the school campus is already under construction, according to the university. (scu.edu)