Shirley ’90 and Walter Wang will never forget the night they found their 7-year-old son in excruciating stomach pain, vomiting bile. It was late and the weather was stormy. They rushed to the emergency department in the pouring rain.
Shirley and Walter’s son experienced digestive issues from a young age. He had a hard time graduating high school because his illness caused him to miss so many days of class. Over the years, his family sought help from many physicians, but nothing worked — until he received integrative care at UCLA Health.
“The whole system really healed our son,” Walter said. “He was much, much better.”
Inspired by their son’s journey, Shirley and Walter recently donated $25 million to establish a center for integrative digestive health at UCLA. The purpose of the center is to offer comprehensive medical, nutritional, emotional and lifestyle support for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
The Wang family has a long and storied history of service to UCLA. A proud Bruin, Shirley graduated from the university with a degree in communication studies, worked at the student newspaper and later chaired The UCLA Foundation Board of Directors. This marks the couple’s largest contribution to UCLA over 18 years of giving.
“This is a great institution,” Walter said. “These patients after this treatment can live a normal life again.”
Walter is no stranger to digestive or chronic illness. Twenty years ago, he was diagnosed with late-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma that had spread to the base of his skull. He promptly broke the news to his family and told his then-6-year-old daughter that he may not live long enough to walk her down the aisle.
“I’d never seen Walter cry,” Shirley said. “It was a rough night.”
After approximately 195 hours of chemotherapy, 20 hours of radiation and countless prayers, Walter made a full recovery. Remarkably, his stomach issues went away too.
“But who wants to be healed that way?” Walter said, nodding to their decision to create the Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health.
A major priority for the center is reducing wait times for treatment. Shirley recalled accompanying her son to past medical visits and empathizing with other patients struggling to book appointments due to limited availability.
“This is awful that these people have to wait a whole year to get an appointment — and that’s not even starting treatment,” Shirley said. “That’s why we wanted to do this — so that more people could have access.”
The Wangs’ investment is already moving the needle. Wait times for some integrative digestive care providers at UCLA Health have plummeted from several months to a few weeks following the addition of a social worker, more GI psychologists, group classes and other resources provided by the family.
“The quality of treatment obviously matters, but quantity also matters,” Walter said. “That’s where we stepped in.”
The center employs a multidisciplinary team of gastroenterologists, GI dietitians, GI psychologists and a nurse practitioner trained in integrative digestive healthcare. They work together to deliver holistic services, from cognitive behavioral therapy and diaphragmatic breathing exercises to medical hypnosis and relaxation training.
“I went through stage 4 cancer — I know,” Walter said. “You have to have a team. You have to have good doctors, good nurses, you have to have good technicians. Even the receptionist — the first person you meet — how he or she treats you makes a difference to the patient.”
“We learned that it’s an ordinary miracle to be alive,” Shirley said. “In Chinese, there’s a phrase: If you’ve gone through a big catastrophe and you survive it, it means that you have great purpose.”
Digestive health lends itself to whole-person care because of the demonstrated connection between the brain and the gut — and because the diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders is not straightforward, according to Eric Esrailian, MD, MPH (FEL ’06), chief of the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases and holder of the Lincy Foundation Chair in Clinical Gastroenterology.
The idea to house a variety of digestive health services under one roof evolved naturally, and the Wangs emerged as the ideal partners to make the vision a reality.
“I admire them so much as friends and role models. They have a tremendous love for the institution and for Los Angeles and for making an impact in the community,” Dr. Esrailian said. “The timing of us developing the center aligned with their desire to do something transformational at UCLA. … It just seemed like a perfect fit.”
The far-reaching gift from the Wangs will also fund a fellowship and an endowed chair in the division. The chair will provide resources for a faculty member to lead the center, while the fellowship will enable rising physician-scientists to specialize in integrative digestive health.
“The fellowship is critical for that education and research element,” said Dr. Esrailian, who hopes that the Wangs’ generosity will inspire others to follow their lead.
“It’s one thing to provide services and help people — and that’s a big part of our mission. But if we’re doing it in a silo … then we’re not really having as much of a transformational impact as we potentially can.”
Dr. Esrailian and the Wang family go way back. While serving on The UCLA Foundation Board of Directors and working on the university’s Centennial Campaign alongside the physician and humanitarian, Shirley came to admire Dr. Esrailian’s ambition.
Shirley and Dr. Esrailian both currently sit on the board of trustees at Harvard-Westlake School and have joined other philanthropists in planning UCLA’s next campaign.
“Eric is a person you invest in,” Shirley said. “What he wants to do, he will make it happen.”
Living through their son’s digestive health crisis, Walter’s cancer treatment and other trials has strengthened the Wangs’ connection to their faith and determination to give back. Shirley and Walter’s passion for building community also extends to their professional work as the CEOs of international door manufacturer Plastpro and pipe manufacturer JM Eagle, respectively.
“If Shirley and I can make a little difference, give a healthy body to one person … it’s worth it,” Walter added. “Life is precious. We only have one.”
Christi Carras is a senior writer for UCLA Health Sciences Development.
