[5][6] Chan grew up speaking Cantonese and interpreted for her grandparents who raised her and her two younger sisters, Michelle and Elaine, while her parents worked.

[7][8] Chan's father owned a restaurant in Massachusetts, which he later sold to run a wholesale fish company in 2006.

I need more power to be able to solve this.’ And so, when you’re 20 years old and a type-A Harvard student, the answer is medical school.”[12] After graduating in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in biology, she taught 4th and 5th grade science at the private Harker School in San Jose, California, for a year before entering medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, in 2008,[14][15] where she graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2012 and then completed residency training in pediatrics in 2015.

[7] Chan first met Mark Zuckerberg, the future co-founder and CEO of Facebook, at a fraternity party during her freshman year at Harvard University in 2003.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy placed the couple at the top of its list of 50 most generous American philanthropists for that year.

[6] In 2016, Chan co-founded "The Primary School," a nonprofit organization that would provide K–12 education as well as prenatal care in East Palo Alto, California.

They pledged to transfer 99 percent of their Facebook shares, then valued at $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is their new limited liability company that focuses on health and education.

The award honors leaders who strive to make the world a better place and also drive change by employing new, innovative business practices.