Brenda Drake likes to say she has two jobs.
One,a part-time position as director of the Public Health Trust, an Oakland-based group that manages money from healthcare lawsuits,is an extension of her career as a corporate and public interest lawyer.
Her other job: first lady of the University of California, Irvine.
At UC Irvine, Brenda said her job is to support husband and Chancellor Michael Drake, “because his job is really a non-stop job.”
The Drakes have been UCI’s first family since 2005, when Michael, 58, became the fifth chancellor in the university’s 45-year history.
Before taking the UCI job, Michael served as vice president of health affairs for the University of California system.
The Drakes are one of the most accomplished couples in the county, with both having long careers before coming to UCI.
Michael is an ophthalmologist by training and a former professor. Brenda practiced corporate law as in-house counsel for Bank of America Corp. in San Francisco and ran the philanthropic Richard and Rhoda Goldman fund earlier in her career.
The Drakes, who have easy laughs and play well off each other, chuckled at a suggestion that their dynamic is similar to that of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
“They’re younger than we are,” Michael joked, downplaying the comparison.
President Obama is 47, about a decade younger than Michael. Michelle Obama is 45.
Still, there are things the president is worried about “that I can relate to viscerally,” Michael said.
“It’s not just Obama, it’s anyone who leads an organization like that,” he said.
The first lady represents the president and the country “in ways Brenda and other people in positions like hers represent their community or their campus,” Michael said.
The Drakes said their long-running marriage works because of love, friendship and common values.
“We also were both always focused on some level of service,” Michael said during an interview in his roomy fifth floor office at Aldrich Hall, UCI’s administration building.
Shared values, including community service, “(were) what we found compatible with each other later on,” Michael said.
Both of the Drakes were student body presidents at their high schools.
“I saw it from the very beginning, that we valued the same things,home and family, education,” said Brenda, who is a key adviser and sounding board for her husband.
“(We) are both very intellectually curious people, so that means we’re never at a loss for conversation,” Brenda said.
Face Challenges Together
Michael said he turns to his wife for advice when faced with challenges. He had to tackle a soap-opera-sized controversy at UCI Medical Center’s troubled liver transplant program less than six months after he became chancellor.
In an earlier interview, Michael said he turned to Brenda for advice after first hearing of the problems.
“She’s always my (strongest) supporter and most careful critic,” he said. “Her support and advice was to continue our focus on getting to the bottom of this as quickly as we could.”
The couple works together to champion Michael’s agenda at UCI and to reach out to students, staff, faculty, parents, alumni and businesses, according to Brenda.
She has “important working relationships” with the associate chancellors at other UC campuses as well as with UC President Mark Yudof, the Board of Regents, members of the Legislature and members of higher education associations, according to Michael.
The couple works with UCI staff members to juggle their various commitments, which Michael said are usually set a year or so in advance.
“We found early on that it was important for me to have someone to handle my schedule and help coordinate our two schedules,” Brenda said.
Law School
Coming up later this year: the August opening of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.
The law school, a major goal of Michael’s since he arrived at UCI, is the first public law school to open in California in 40 years.
The Drakes have hosted recruiting events for law professors at Tierney University House, the chancellor’s official residence. They’ve also taken part in other events.
Michael and Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school’s dean, taught a course together at the university last quarter.
Brenda, who received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, said she and Chemerinsky have talked about her possibly teaching at the law school. But that could be tricky given her commitments.
“I’m certainly open to coming to give a presentation or speaking to students,” she said.
Beyond UCI, Michael is involved with health policy advisory groups. Brenda is on the boards of several health and arts groups, including a state commission on health professions education.
Public Praise
The Drakes get high marks from those who have interacted with them.
The couple’s “tireless efforts and spirit of generosity have made an immediate positive impact across the campus and our local community,” said James Mazzo, president of Abbott Medical Optics Inc., a Santa Ana eye device and contact lens care maker that was Advanced Medical Optics Inc. before being bought by Abbott Laboratories in February.
Mazzo said he and wife Kelly have gotten to know the Drakes through their involvement with UCI and other groups. Mazzo was among the first to meet with Michael after his appointment.
For their part, the Drakes say they have been warmly received here.
“This community realizes that higher education is an investment in the future,” Michael said.
The Drakes’ life together stretches back four decades.
In 1970, Michael and then Brenda Jackson met in class at Stanford University, where they were among about 200 African-American undergraduates on campus.
“Essentially, everyone knew everyone else,” Michael said.
Brenda said she’d noticed Michael in class and thought, “I really want to get to know him.”
He noticed her too.
“I notice attractive, brilliant and accomplished young women, of which Brenda was the leading example,” Michael said.
Brenda said she was attracted to Michael’s sense of humor.
“I love his sense of humor, even today,” she said. “I’m probably the biggest fan of your jokes.”
Married in 1975
The couple married in 1975. Michael had graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, and started his residency. Brenda graduated from Berkeley, passed the bar and was starting to practice.
“We got married when we were out of school and were able to support ourselves,” Michael said.
As for how they work together now, “I follow instructions and do whatever she says,” Michael said with a laugh.
“True,” Brenda said with a smile.
Devoted Parents
The Drakes are devoted parents to their sons, who also received their undergraduate degrees from Stanford.
Christopher, 27, received his law degree from Harvard Law School and was a Fulbright scholar. He now practices law in Washington, D.C.
Sean, 25, was waiting to hear whether he’s going to be accepted to business school. He is a teacher at the Bing Nursery School on Stanford’s campus,his parents said he did a lot of work in early childhood development as part of his psychology major. He’s a recent newlywed.
Michael and Brenda said they made sure that at least one of them, and many times both of them, would attend Christopher’s and Sean’s recitals, track meets and other activities during their childhoods in San Francisco.
Christopher is a jazz and classical pianist who took his parents to the opera for the first time at age 11. Sean is a middle-distance runner who was an All-American in middle and high school and ran for Stanford’s varsity track team.
“He was a real committed athlete for 10 years,” Michael said. One of the pictures in his office is of a 10-year-old Sean running in a breast cancer benefit race.
The Drakes were active parents. Brenda served on boards and parent advisory committees of their sons’ schools, including the Stanford parents’ board. The couple said they enjoyed raising their sons, and would be “very happy grandparents.”
Leisure Time
Because the Drakes have, as Michael puts it, “about 300 nights a year when we have an obligation of one type or another,” their leisure time is rare.
Brenda said they are fans of Formula 1 open-wheel auto racing and visited Monaco 30 years ago to watch races. They also enjoy going to the movies, talking walks and traveling in the “rare” times they can do so.
Michael enjoys bicycle riding. Brenda enjoys going to the gym and studying French.
The Drakes live in the 9,500-square-foot Tierney house, which is in University Hills at UCI.
The house was built with public and private money and has a lot of space devoted to entertaining, including wining and dining potential donors and other dignitaries. It has housed the chancellor since Ralph Cicerone’s days starting in 1998.
Brenda runs the house.
“I approve all the events that are going to take place at the residence, so they run those by me before any guest lists are put together and invitations (are sent out),” she said.
She said she works with university staff members to make sure the house and its grounds are well-maintained.
Being the “steward of the house” is important to Brenda, who called the chancellor’s residence a “wonderful resource for the university.”
