Barbra Streisand is funding a UCLA research institute to tackle a broad range of social issues. Housed in UCLA’s division of Social Sciences, the institute bearing her name will include four research centers. These centers will delve into climate change and environmental health, the dynamics of gender relationships and power, the arts and how to combat disinformation in the national discourse.
“Building upon her decades of work as an artists and activist, Barbra Streisand’s visionary act of generosity will enable UCLA scholars from many different fields to collaborate on research that will move society forward,” UCLA chancellor Gene Block said.
Ahead of the formal establishment of the institute, which will occur when the full gift amount is received, the work will be housed at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Streisand’s gift extends the center’s own research on critical issues that affect women and the larger society.
Streisand, a multitalented performer, producer and director, has won two Oscars, five Emmys, 10 Grammys, a Tony Award, numerous Golden Globe trophies and three Peabody Awards over the span of her career. She has also been active in philanthropy: Shehas supported cardiovascular research and education at Cedars-Sinai since 2007, and in 2012, the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai was renamed in her honor. Streisand also established the Streisand Chair in Cardiology at UCLA in 1984. In 2014, the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program was established at the university, examining stress and the connection between the heart and the mind.
“It is my great pleasure to be able to fund an institute at UCLA, one of the world’s premier universities,” Streisand said. “This will be a place where future scholars can discuss, engage and argue about the most important issues of the day; where innovators will speak truth to power, help save our planet, and make glass ceilings for women an anachronism; and in the process give us a chance to have a brighter, more promising future.”
