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UCLA and Cantor Foundation Celebrate 30 Years of the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center

On June 3 2025, the Cantor Foundation Attended the 30th Anniversary for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center, which took place during the 19th annual Lunch with Scientists Event hosted by UCLA.

The event featured speeches by Dr. Janet Pregler, director of the IC Women’s Health Center; Dr. Julio Frenk, newly inaugurated chancellor of UCLA; and Dr. Felicia Knaul, renowned health economist. Each spoke at length about the enormous impact the Women’s Health Center has had and the pivotal role the contributions of Iris Cantor and the Cantor Foundation have played in advancing its mission.

Dr. Pregler described how women’s health research, once a neglected field, has made enormous strides thanks to gifts from Iris and Bernie Cantor and the Cantor Foundation. She also described how the Iris Cantor Breast Imaging Center, which replaced an aging facility located in the basement of the UCLA medical school, restored dignity and hope and saved countless lives due to critical early detection of breast cancer.

Iris was then honored by the UCLA team for her thirty years of contribution on Women’s Health with a stunning crystal award and an elegant portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler.

Iris Cantor then gave a heartfelt speech, in which she recounted her own experiences with breast cancer, specifically the heartbreaking and untimely diagnosis and death of her sister. Iris was determined to combat the deadly disease that has affected the lives of so many women and their families. She thanked Dr. Pregler and the UCLA faculty for continuing to carry out the mission of delivering world-class women’s health care.

Ryan Fisher, President and Executive Director of the Cantor Foundation, spoke of the groundbreaking accomplishment achieved at the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center and thanked Dr. Pregler for her steadfast commitment to excellence in medicine. Mr. Fisher also discussed the pilot program, funded by the Executive Advisory Board since 2004, which gives seed grants to incubate research in women’s health. To date, the grants have supported 70 UCLA investigators. These pilot projects resulted in data and publications that garnered over 50 million dollars in subsequent research funding for women’s health.

Mr. Fisher then announced a monumental gift from Iris Cantor, kicking off a new endowment called the Iris Cantor Women’s Initiative for Scientific Health. The WISH endowment will lead to more studies and more findings that will advance medical knowledge and eventually medical practice.

The event, which was informative and heartfelt, left the Chancellor, women’s advisory board, honored guests, and the Cantor Foundation excited and hopeful for the future of women’s health care and research.