UC San Diego Health has announced a $10 million gift from Darlene Shiley in support of an expansion of its Shiley Eye Institute.

The gift will finance expansion of the clinical space and function of the institute, which opened in 1991 as the Donald P. and Darlene V. Shiley Eye Center with an $8 million gift from Shiley and her husband, who passed away in 2010. Over the years, the Shileys donated more than $10 million for clinical improvements, equipment, research, and funding of a leadership chair; other family members also have helped support the Low Vision Clinic and Shiley Eye Mobile clinic. Today, the 91,000-square-foot institute encompasses three centers: the Anne F. and Abraham Ratner Children’s Eye Center, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Retina Center, the Hamilton Glaucoma Center, and the forthcoming Viterbi Vision Research Center.

The Shileys also have supported the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, named in part to honor Darlene’s mother, Dee Marcos.

“Over the last three decades, Donald and I have supported the growth and excellence of the Shiley Eye Institute and her centers of care,” said Shiley. “It was one of our first philanthropic projects we supported and were loyal to for the ‘long haul,’ as Donald would say. I now continue that legacy with pride, with the knowledge that we have improved and will continue to improve medical care and research that benefits all of us.”

(Photo credit: Bob Ross/UC San Diego Health Sciences)