Santa Clara University to open region’s first medical school in 100 years

Santa Clara University is entering the medical field through a major partnership with Sutter Health aimed at training future physicians in the South Bay.

University and healthcare leaders announced the launch of the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine during a Friday event outside the future campus site at 2431 Mission College Blvd. in Santa Clara, where construction is already underway. The 82,000-square-foot medical school plans to open within the next three to five years pending the accreditation process.

The school is backed by a $175 million donation from venture capitalist and Nvidia billionaire Mark Stevens and longtime Santa Clara University trustee Mary Stevens.

“This is a historic partnership with Santa Clara,” Sutter Health CEO Warner Thomas told San José Spotlight. “We haven’t seen a new MD medical school (in the Bay Area) created in over 100 years.”

Thomas said California and the nation continue to face significant physician shortages, particularly as healthcare systems prepare for growing and aging populations. He said the new medical school will help train the next generation of doctors while expanding access to care in local communities.

Santa Clara University President Julie Sullivan said the university and Sutter Health have been discussing the partnership for nearly three years. She said the school aims to prepare physicians who can combine advances in technology with compassionate patient care.

“We’re really excited to be able to create a school of medicine that will help address a physician workforce shortage,” Sullivan told San José Spotlight. “Even more importantly, we’ll focus on creating the physicians that are going to be most effective in a future world of keeping patients, families and communities healthy … but also very facile with technology and how it can be used to take even better care of people. But without taking the human connection of the physician and the patient out of the equation, because that’s so important.”

University leaders said roughly 700 students are already pursuing pre-health academic tracks including medicine, nursing and dentistry. Officials said the medical school will combine traditional medical education with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and simulation-based training as healthcare systems increasingly adopt new digital tools.

Mary Stevens reflected on her lasting ties to Santa Clara University and Silicon Valley, where she’s built her career, raised her family and formed lifelong friendships after attending the university, she told the audience. She said compassionate physicians have shaped her family’s healthcare experiences over the years and inspired the couple’s decision to support the new medical school.

It was through her longtime family physician, Dr. Teresa Nauenberg, that she came to appreciate quality, compassionate healthcare. Nauenberg is affiliated with Sutter Health.

“Dr. Terry Nauenberg is my medical confidant and our family doctor,” Stevens said. “I use the word family doctor because she shows empathy, she’s personable and she really takes the time to understand your health concerns. We need more physicians just like Dr. Terry.”

Stevens said although she and her husband now live in Colorado, she still remains tied to Silicon Valley.

“Silicon Valley still has a firm grip on our hearts — and our wallets,” she said.

Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said the project could strengthen the city’s healthcare infrastructure long term by creating a pipeline of medical professionals who may eventually work in local hospitals and medical centers.

“This is really transformational for us because Sutter Health has located their large medical facility and planned hospital here in this area,” Gillmor told San José Spotlight. “To open the medical school with Santa Clara University, this is long-term sustainability for a section of our community where there’s a huge need for healthcare.”

Santa Clara University student Setay Assadzadeh-Nahvi said she sees how the future medical school could reflect the university’s Jesuit values and emphasis on “cura personalis,” a philosophy centered on caring for the whole person.

Assadzadeh-Nahvi said medicine extends beyond biology and clinical care, pointing instead to the broader social factors that shape people’s health and well-being.

“Medicine is not just shaped by biology,” she told San José Spotlight. “It’s those social drivers, seeing medicine as something that’s more humane and just.”

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.