Grace Shih
In Memory of
The Grace Shih Research Fund
The Grace Shih Research Fund supports research on MDA5 dermatomyositis and related diseases led by Grace’s rheumatologist, Dr. Lorinda Chung, Professor of Medicine (Immunology and Rheumatology) and Dermatology, and her team at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Online: Make your gift online at The Grace Shih Research Fund. If this link does not work, go to give.stanford.edu, type in “The Grace Shih Research Fund” in the “Search for a fund” box, click “Add custom fund,” and continue.
By mail: Alternatively, send a check payable to “Stanford University,” with “The Grace Shih Research Fund” in the memo, to Stanford University Development Services, P.O. Box 20466, Stanford, CA 94309-0466.
About MDA5 Dermatomyositis and the Research Fund
MDA5 dermatomyositis is a rare autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. Patients with MDA5 dermatomyositis can develop rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD), which causes severe inflammation and scarring of the lungs within weeks. RP-ILD often responds poorly to treatment, even with aggressive immune-suppressing therapy, and it is one of the most life-threatening complications in all of rheumatology.
That is what happened to Grace. She was hiking with no symptoms in late November 2025, was diagnosed in mid-December, and within weeks needed life support and a bilateral lung transplant.
Researchers still don’t know what triggers this devastating auto-immune disease, why it attacks the lungs so quickly, or how to stop it early. There are no treatments designed specifically for it. Because it is so rare, research funding is limited, and every gift makes a difference.
About Grace Shih
(May 31, 1954 - Nov 2, 2026)
Grace Shih was born in Tainan, Taiwan, to parents Bob and Jean Shih. She was the youngest sister to four brothers. She immigrated with her family from Taiwan to Massachusetts in the 1970s and earned degrees in Clinical Nutrition from UMass Amherst and San Jose State University.
Grace was a single working mother to daughter Alice born in 1981. Grace served as a Clinical Nutritionist at San Francisco General and then at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, where she spent 30 years specializing in eating disorders. After she “retired”, she wrote the first book on Diabulimia, consulted at community hospitals, and took up financial planning as a second career and hobby. In 2005, Grace married John Sheehan at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga; they had met while caroling at a Sierra Club Christmas Party.
Grace was incredibly adventurous and independent. Her lifelong dream was to hike all of the U.S. National Parks, and she hiked 52 of the 63. Throughout her life, she traveled the world with her daughter, husband, friends and solo. In her sixties, she decided to learn piano and painting. She painted voraciously and focused on landscapes of places she visited. She was an active attendee at Taiwanese, Chinese and American churches and enjoyed singing in the choir. At work, among her neighbors, and at church, she was the friendly, colorful social butterfly. Her greatest joy was her grandsons, Owen and Austin. She was present at both of their births, and insisted on caring for them weekly from the days they were each born.
Grace had just returned from a hiking trip when, in December 2025, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with MDA5 Dermatomyositis. She received a life-saving lung transplant in January 2026 but faced months of serious complications. She fought incredibly hard to recover so she could get back outdoors and to her family and friends. Never wanting to obligate people, she asked friends not to visit while she was ill; but for nearly one year, her daughter was by her side every day, her husband every night, and Owen and Austin every weekend.
Grace passed away at Stanford Hospital on November 2, 2026, surrounded by the overwhelming love and grief of her family. In her memory, the family established The Grace Shih Research Fund at Stanford, in the hope that scientific and clinical research will advance understanding of the devastating disease that took Grace too soon.
Click here to learn more about Grace’s hospital journey, as documented by her daughter on CaringBridge.com
How to Help From the Family
Grace’s illness came without warning and changed our lives in a matter of weeks. As we grieve, we are looking for a way to turn her year of fighting and our loss into something meaningful - research that may help us understand her disease, may help doctors catch it sooner and treat it better, and may give other families more time than we had. Thank you for helping us honor Grace in this way.
Click here to donate to The Grace Shih Research Fund on the Stanford Make a Gift page
Share a Memory or Message
If you’d like, we would love to hear from you. Share a memory of Grace, a note for the family, or simply let us know you made a gift in her honor. Messages are optional and will be read only by the family.