John R. Endwright Alumni Service Award

Paul Hepfer

Spanning nearly three decades, Paul Hepfer’s career in community health and wellness has been as diverse as the people he has served. Since 2019 he has led Project Open Hand, guiding a team of 130 employees and thousands of volunteers with a budget of more than $17 million. Project Open Hand prepares more than one million medically tailored meals annually, improving health outcomes and quality of life for sick and vulnerable people in the San Francisco and Oakland area.

An advocate for medical nutrition intervention, he furthers the organization’s mission of educating healthcare payers and providers on the role of medical nutrition in health outcomes.

During his graduate work at Indiana University, he served as an accessibility specialist for the National Center on Accessibility, a program of Indiana University and the National Park Service, to help advance the aims of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with a focus on improving recreation opportunities for people with disabilities in the National Park Service and other federal park lands.

Mr. Hepfer’s past and current volunteer service includes co-chair, HIV/AIDS Planning Commission for Santa Clara County; chair, City of Mountain View Parks and Recreation and Urban Forest Commission; chair, Evidenced-Based Leadership Collaborative; and leadership committee member of the California Food is Medicine Coalition.

He received his M.S. in recreation administration from SPH-B in 2000.